TY  - JOUR
AU  - Sinai,Todd
AU  - Gyourko,Joseph
TI  - The Spatial Distribution of Housing-Related Tax Benefits in the United States
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8165
PY  - 2001
Y2  - March 2001
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8165
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8165.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Todd M. Sinai
University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School
1465 Steinberg Hall - Dietrich Hall
3620 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6302
Tel: 215/898-5390
Fax: 215/573-2220
E-Mail: sinai@wharton.upenn.edu

Joseph Gyourko
University of Pennsylvania
Wharton School of Business
3620 Locust Walk
1480 Steinberg-Dietrich Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6302
Tel: 215/898-3003
Fax: 215/573-2220
E-Mail: gyourko@wharton.upenn.edu
AB  - Using 1990 Census tract-level data, we estimate how tax subsidies to owner-occupied housing are distributed spatially across the United States, calculating their value as the difference in taxes currently paid by home owners and the taxes owners would pay if there were no preference for investing in one's home relative to other assets.  The $164 billion national tax subsidy is highly skewed spatially with a few areas receiving large subsidies and most areas receiving small ones.  If the program were self-financed on a lump sum basis, less than 20 percent of states and 10 percent of metropolitan areas would have net positive subsidies.  These few metropolitan areas are situated almost exclusively along the California coast and in the Northeast from Washington, DC to Boston.  At the state level, California stands out because it receives 25 percent of the national aggregate subsidy flow while being home to only 10 percent of the country's owners. At the metropolitan area level, owners in just three large CMSAs receive over 75 percent of all positive net benefits. And within a number of the larger metropolitan areas, the top quarter of owners receives 70 percent or more of the total subsidy flowing to the metro area.
ER  -