The Economic and Social Ramifications of Accessibility on Renters in Urban Metropolitan Areas
Consumers have two options when seeking a residence: they can either rent or buy a home. The average person seeking either of these two options must then consider a multitude of important factors. Decisions and preferences are limited by a budget constraint that varies with each person browsing the market, forcing many to make sacrifices due to income and income security, age,credit score, and square footage requirements. In addition, more abstract concepts such as safety of a given area, racism, and ethnic connectedness require homeowners and renters to carefully make decisions about a neighborhood and its inhabitants. Emory is a student demographic, of which many rent or will rent after graduation, this article will focus on what can influence rent prices and renters’ preferences. The primary focus of this article will be the effects of accessibility and mixed land use on rent, with accessibility being one's access to employment.
William Alonso, an economist and planner, developed a monocentric economic model that determined that residential activities are the product of the trade off between accessibility to the central business district (CBD) and land value. This understanding became known as urban economic theory; however, this line of thought has become less accurate in describing the lived experience of urbanites as employment and technology has and continues to change. Economists and urban planners now rely on a less assumptive polycentric model which recognizes that there is not a singular, but instead many CBDs. Urban sprawl is the driving factor behind this more modern polycentrism, as it has spread out the sources of labor which has in turn shifted supply chain networks. Atlanta’s metropolitan area provides an accurate depiction of this polycentrism with it being made up of fifteen unique urban and suburban areas. This is relevant in understanding that Alonso’s initial model depicting accessibility as closeness to a city’s CBD is outdated, as cities have more than one CBD that all must be taken into account when measuring accessibility.
Fiscal and exclusionary zoning, such as strictly industrial or commercial zoning, are areas that generate revenue but demand low supply of housing. This form of development creates spatial consequences that push workers further from where they work. Pushed further from their place of work, workers are priced out of areas that provide the convenience of accessibility. Mixed land use emerged from the New Urbanism movement to bring together complimentary zoning types to lessen pollution, traffic, and other inefficiencies. Commercial zones that mix with housing provide consumers greater ease to goods like groceries, clothing, and activities like restaurants and clubs, thus encouraging consumers to more frequently utilize these amenities. Decreasing the distance between housing and commercial and industrial zones lessens pollution created by commuter travel. Mixed land use has also been demonstrated to increase the quantity of affordable housing.
Not only do accessibility and mixed use planning impact renter preferences, they can also have immense impacts on wealth distribution, poverty, and the vulnerability of neighborhoods. Sociologist William Wilson analyzes Chicago neighborhoods, arguing that the disappearance of work in inner city neighborhoods has devastated low skilled workers. His research provides that these low skilled workers’ situations have been further exacerbated due to the fact that they often live in areas that lack access to areas of high employment. Deindustrialization forced many low wage earners to become jobless and consequently created entire geographic areas where joblessness was disproportionately high compared to surrounding areas within given metropolitan areas. This decline in job opportunities, a decrease in accessibility, proved problematic for many living in urban areas and the effects of this decline are still felt in impoverished neighborhoods. Mixed land use is a possible remedy for revitalizing neighborhoods facing these conditions; for, the influx of industrial and commercial service employment opportunities would increase accessibility and increase social welfare.
These variables, mixed land use and accessibility, have long influenced the preferences of renters. Given that 80% of personal travel is related to work, socialization, and shopping, the accessibility to one's job and opportunities to shop and socialize are relevant factors that shape the preferences of renters. A study conducted by Danya Kim and Jangik Jin observed the preferences of renters in the Chicago metropolitan area through spatial econometric models. The study found that accessibility and mixed use planning yield different effects on rent prices, finding that rent price and accessibility have little to no association with rent prices while mixed land use increases rent prices. This relationship suggests that renters are willing to pay more for diverse land use. The study finds the opposite relationships are true for those looking to purchase homes, meaning that planners should consider the difference in preferences when designing and implementing policy. The study recognizes that there exist many endogenous variables and externalities that would impact the correlations found for which went unaccounted. Comparing the more qualitative analysis of employment accessibility offered by Wilson with the above study provides evidence that contextual variables not considered by the econometric study may impact renters more so than the trade offs between accessibility and mixed land use. Demographic differences of these studies also provide insight into the unequal distribution of these preferences, as those studied by Wilson were primarily minority and low income populations in impoverished neighborhoods, whereas Kim and Jin’s analysis was a broader study of the metropolitan area. Demographically, it appears that accessibility and mixed land use preferences between renters can and should be further divided when designing policy and planning neighborhoods.
These preferences vary by person and are often decidedly subconscious, but nevertheless raise complex questions about the compromises and sacrifices made by renters. If you as the reader plans to rent or already are, I encourage you to take a closer look at your own preferences and how closeness to work and the availability of activities will or has influenced your decisions.
Edited by Matthew Takavarasha
Works Cited
Ahlfeldt, Gabriel. “IF ALONSO WAS RIGHT: MODELING ACCESSIBILITY AND EXPLAINING THE RESIDENTIAL AND GRADIENT.” Wiley Online Library, 1 May 2011, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-9787.2010.00694.x.
Chisholm, Michael, and William Alonso. “Location and Land Use: Toward a General Theory of Land Rent.” Economic Geography, vol. 42, no. 3, 1966, p. 277. Crossref, doi:10.2307/142015.
Kim, Danya, and Jangik Jin. “The Effect of Land Use on Housing Price and Rent: Empirical Evidence of Job Accessibility and Mixed Land Use.” Sustainability 11.3 (2019): 938. Crossref. Web.
Sharpe, M. E. “When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor by William Julius Wilson.” Challenge, vol. 40, no. 1, 1997, pp. 129–30. Crossref, doi:10.1080/05775132.1997.11471958.
Walter G. Hansen (1959) How Accessibility Shapes Land Use, Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 25:2, 73-76, DOI: 10.1080/01944365908978307
