Age, commute distances, and housing in Los Angeles and San Francisco
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Keywords: Transportation, housing, equity, workers
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract
Authors:
Hannah King, University of California, Los Angeles
Evelyn Blumenberg, Department of Urban Planning, University of California, Los Angeles
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Abstract
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the affordable housing crisis is forcing households to seek lower cost housing in the outer reaches of major metropolitan areas, helping to explain recent increases in commute distance. In this study we test whether the relative availability of housing is associated with the commute distance of young workers, many of whom are relatively new to the labor market. To test this relationship, we use spatial regression to examine the relationship between the availability of housing in close proximity to jobs (jobs-housing balance) and commute distance of workers under 30 in two high-cost metropolitan areas: Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.
We find that competition for housing is a strong predictor of commute distance. Competition for housing rather than simply housing costs is key, because owner-occupied housing costs alone are not statistically significant in one of our study regions. Competition among all workers for housing, among workers on the basis of wage, and among workers on the basis of age are all statistically significant predictors of commute distances. We also find that underlying structural factors such as proximity to downtown, density, and proximity to rail all significantly predict commute distances. These patterns demonstrate that commute distances are a product of both housing market competition (i.e., public policy) and largely ungovernable, or at least longer-term, less tractable, structural issues.
Age, commute distances, and housing in Los Angeles and San Francisco
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Paper Abstract