The first book that explains the economics of housing policy for a general audience. Planners, government officials, and public policy students will find that the economic perspective is a very powerful and useful way to examine these issues. The authors provide a broad review of the market for housing services in the U.S., including a conceptual framework, an overview of housing demand and supply, methods for measuring prices and quantities, and sources of basic data on markets. They cover housing programs and polices, and offer answers to policy questions that are of current interest. The book has been field-tested in graduate and undergraduate courses in urban and housing economics at the University of Wisconsin, the University of California--Berkeley, The University of Pennsylvania, and others. This book is also sure to be useful to policymakers, advocates, economists, and anyone interested in a clear picture of how housing markets function. Published in cooperation with the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA).

How are efforts at making cities more inclusive and equitable playing out across nations and societies, with different governance structures and varying political circumstances? How is affordable housing bridging economic gaps across different social and cultural geographies? This collection of fifty essays and case studies engages in these important questions and explores a wide array of strategies and approaches, extracting their overlaps and contrasts. It features interviews with influential administrators and planners such as Somsook Boonyabancha (Thailand), and Jaime Lerner (Brazil). It showcases projects by globally known architects and urbanists such as MVRDV (The Netherlands), and Alejandro Aravena (Chile). And it offers discussions on uplifting the base of the economic pyramid through low-income and slum-upgradation projects in Mali, Venezuela, Bogota, Myanmar, and Pune. This volume is not only an invaluable resource for architects and planners interested in the design of affordable housing, but for anyone interested in the global multiplicity and complexity of urban affordability, liveability and social justice.