The Effect of New Market-Rate Housing Construction on the Low-Income Housing Market

By Evan Mast

July 2019

This paper looks at the ripple effect of new multi-unit buildings in 12 large U.S. cities. Mast finds that building 100 new market-rate units opens up the equivalent of 70 units in neighborhoods earning below the area’s median income. In the poorest neighborhoods, it opens up the equivalent of 40 units.