Must Growth Restrictions Eliminate Moderate–Priced Housing?

Abstract Researchers have been too quick to blame growth controls for the scarcity of moderate-priced housing. The annual trend in percentage of moderate-priced units sold in Boulder, Colorado, confirms that affordable housing need not disappear as a result of growth limitations. The price of new single-family detached homes in Boulder did increase after the city enacted its growth limitation ordinance, but new detached homes represented a minority of housing opportunity. While fewer moderate-priced detached homes were produced in Petaluma, California, and Boulder after growth control was enacted, small attached units flourished in Boulder, providing opportunity for people of modest means to purchase housing. Because of planning policy and market demand, exclusion of lower-income households was avoided in Boulder but not in Petaluma.