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Cityscape: Volume 24 Number 1 | An Evaluation of the Impact and Potential of Opportunity Zones

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An Evaluation of the Impact and Potential of Opportunity Zones

Volume 24 Number 1

Editors
Mark D. Shroder
Michelle P. Matuga

The Impact of Qualified Opportunity Zones on Existing Single-Family House Prices

Yanling G. Mayer
CoreLogic, Inc.

Edward F. Pierzak
San Diego State University

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of CoreLogic, Inc., or its management.


Established by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA),1 qualified Opportunity Zones (OZs) are a new place-based community development program that attempts to help economically challenged areas by encouraging private capital investment through the use of tax incentives. Although the program started at the beginning of 2018, implementation of the program has been slow, creating challenges for investors. The program’s structure may have also inadvertently created an environment ripe for surging property prices. This unintended consequence has the potential to reduce or eliminate investor tax benefits, stimulate community gentrification, and diminish affordability for residents. Recent studies have found evidence of material price “premiums” for some commercial real estate properties located in OZs (Pierzak, 2021; Sage, Langen, and Van de Minne, 2019). Recognizing the policy’s potential in driving increased investor interest in single-family home rentals, the authors of this study explore the impact of the program on existing single-family house prices and find that the community development program has led to excess home price appreciation totaling 6.8 percent from 2018 to 2020.


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