Jobs–Housing Balance Re-Re-Visited

Abstract

Problem, research strategy, and findings

In many U.S. metropolitan areas housing costs have skyrocketed in recent years relative to average incomes. A worsening shortage of affordable housing in these metros may push households away from job-rich cities and expensive neighborhoods into outlying areas, where housing is cheaper but jobs are more distant. To examine this issue, we revisit the jobs–housing balance, a popular topic of research in the 1990s, with a focus on the relationship between housing and the spatial location of workers relative to jobs. Our analysis draws on data from the Longitudinal Employer–Household Dynamics Origin–Destination Employment Statistics (LODES) for cities in California in 2002 and 2015. In contrast to earlier jobs–housing balance research, we find that California cities are becoming less self-contained over time, defined as a decline in the number of workers who both live and work within a jurisdiction relative to the number of commuters who travel either into or out of a city for work. Statistical models show that self-containment was higher in cities with lower housing costs and, in 2015, in cities with a greater balance between jobs and employed residents.

Takeaway for practice

The deepening housing affordability crisis in many metropolitan areas like those found in California are pushing workers and jobs farther apart, increasing the economic, social, and environmental costs of commuting. Policies to increase the supply of housing in job-rich and high–housing cost areas could help reverse this troubling trend, though they are likely to meet with considerable resistance. Our findings also underscore the importance of efforts that include but extend beyond housing production, such as policies to better match job skills and housing prices to the characteristics of workers.

Keywords:

• commute distance
• housing affordability
• jobs–housing balance

View correction statement:

Correction

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are responsible for any errors or omissions. We thank Mark Garrett, Julene Paul, Madeline Ruvolo, Andrew Schouten, Brian Taylor, and Jacob Wasserman for their contributions to the larger research project from which this article draws.

The original version of this article included an important equation with unclear wording. The authors thank the reader and colleague who brought this issue to their attention.

RESEARCH SUPPORT

This research was funded by the State of California through Senate Bill 1.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

Supplemental data for this article can be found on the publisher’s website.

Correction Statement

This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction (http://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2022.2077586).

Notes

1 We assign cities to regions based on county boundaries for the metropolitan planning organizations in the state. The San Francisco Bay Area region includes the following nine counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma. The Fresno region includes Fresno County. Sacramento includes El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba counties. San Diego includes San Diego County. The greater Los Angeles region includes Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura counties.

2 The cities include Alameda, Berkeley, Concord, Daly City, Fairfield, Fremont, Hayward, Mountain View, Napa, Oakland, Palo Alto, Pleasanton, Redwood City, Richmond, San Francisco, San Jose, San Leandro, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Rosa, Sunnyvale, Vallejo, and Walnut Creek.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Evelyn Blumenberg

EVELYN BLUMENBERG ([email protected]) is professor of urban planning and director of the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA); she studies transportation and economic outcomes for low-wage workers and the role of planning and policy in addressing transportation disparities.

Hannah King

HANNAH KING ([email protected]) is a doctoral student in urban planning at UCLA who studies transportation finance, travel behavior, and transportation equity.