Housing Vouchers and the Price of Rental Housing

Abstract

We estimate the effect of increasing the supply of housing vouchers on rents using a panel of housing units in the American Housing Survey. We do not find that an increase in vouchers affected the overall price of rental housing, but do estimate differences in effects based on an individual unit’s rent before the voucher expansion. Our results are consistent with voucher recipients renting more expensive units after receiving the subsidy. We also find that the largest price increases were for units near the maximum allowable voucher rent in cities with an inelastic housing supply.

Keywords: Housing Policy, In-Kind Transfers, Housing Supply, Vouchers

JEL Classification: H42, H53, R31, R38