Housing and Community Development Policy

Catalog description

Class Hours: 3 Lab/Discussion: 0 Credits: 3 Description: Explores a range of issues relating to U.S. housing and community development policy, including the role housing plays in building and strengthening neighborhoods and communities. Covers the structure of housing and related financial markets; the economic and social bases for government to intervene in these markets; and the relative merits and demerits of the different tools available to intervene in these markets including: subsidization, both directly and through the tax system; regulation of financial institutions, e.g. the Community Reinvestment Act; FHA and the government sponsored enterprises of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; zoning; and regulation of lands and rents