Premium
The Spatial Distribution of Housing‐Related Ordinary Income Tax Benefits
Author(s) -
Gyourko Joseph,
Sinai Todd
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
real estate economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.064
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1540-6229
pISSN - 1080-8620
DOI - 10.1046/j.1080-8620.2003.00076.x
Subject(s) - subsidy , metropolitan area , economics , skewness , distribution (mathematics) , unit (ring theory) , dispersion (optics) , demographic economics , public economics , geography , econometrics , mathematics , physics , optics , mathematical analysis , mathematics education , archaeology , market economy
We estimate how tax subsidies to owner‐occupied housing are distributed spatially across the United States and find striking skewness. At the state level, the mean tax benefit per owned unit in 1990 ranged from $917 in South Dakota to $10,718 in Hawaii. The dispersion is slightly greater when benefit flows are measured at the metropolitan‐area level. Even assuming the subsidies are funded in an income progressivity‐neutral manner, a relatively few metro areas, primarily in California and the New York–Boston corridor, are shown to gain considerably while the vast majority of areas have relatively small gains or losses.