Planetzen: How Filtering Increases Housing Affordability

A narrow definition favors policies that preserve and subsidize cheap housing. A broader definition tends to supports policy reforms allow much more development of moderate-priced housing ($200,000-600,000 per unit) in walk-able urban neighborhoods. Even if the new units are initially too pricey for lower-income households, they increase affordability through filtering, as some lower-priced housing occupants move up to the moderate-priced units, and over time as they depreciate and become cheaper.