Project: THE EFFECTS OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING ON CHILDREN’S WELL-BEING  

Sponsor: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Status: Complete
IPS Staff: Sandra J. Newman, Joseph Harkness, Tama Leventhal, Amy Robie, Marcella Sapun, and Laura Vernon-Russell

Purpose and Approach
Housing affordability is often viewed as the most significant housing challenge. For example, over the last two decades, the housing component of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) grew 35 percent faster than the general CPI, and the fraction of families paying more than 30 percent of income doubled. Housing affordability problems could have deleterious effects on children’s well-being by reducing the resources the family can invest in their children, or by increasing the stress on parents. On the other hand, places with higher-priced housing tend to be those with robust economies, better schools, lower crime rates, and more attractive environments. Perhaps when families pay more to live in such places, children benefit.

This study examined the association between housing affordability and the cognitive ability, behavior problems, and physical health of children ages 3-12. We relied on a large, longitudinal database, the 1968-2002 Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and its 1997 and 2002 Child Development Supplements.

Results
Children growing up in higher-priced housing markets fare no worse, and may do better, than those in lower-priced markets. For children who spent at least half of their childhood years in poverty, there were no adverse associations between housing prices and academic achievement, behavior, or health. Nor is there any indication that parents living in higher-priced markets are more emotionally stressed. Children who spent most of their childhood in families with incomes between 100-200 percent of poverty also fared no worse if they lived in higher-priced markets, and boys in higher-priced markets actually scored higher on reading and math tests. Parents in this income group living in higherpriced areas were no more likely to report being depressed or having poor self-esteem.

Publications
Harkness, J. and S. Newman (2007). “Poverty, Housing Prices, and the Well-Being of Children and Parents.” Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies.

Harkness, J. and S. Newman (2006). “Rental Housing Affordability and Children’s Outcomes.” Paper presented at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies Symposium, “Revisiting Rental: The Importance of Rental Housing.” November 14, Cambridge, MA.

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