The Impact of Selected Aesthetic Building Restrictions on Georgia’s Single-Family Housing Markets

Abstract

This paper analyzes the economic impact that selected “look and feel” or aesthetic building restrictions have on housing prices and housing availability in Georgia counties. We model the median value of homes using ordinary least squares, and as a robustness check, we also use a partial least squares structural equations model. We also estimate a supply of housing, as measured by single family housing permits, using a negative binomial regression. We find that aesthetic building restrictions do not have a statistically significant impact on the value of single-family homes or their supply.

Keywords:

• Housing prices
• housing availability
• aesthetic building restrictions
• PLS-SEM
• negative binomial regression
• OLS

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Brad Mock, and the Georgia Association of Realtors ® for their insights and comments on previous drafts, as well as their financial support of the Center for Business and Economics Research at the University of West Georgia.

Disclosure Statement

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

PLS-SEM Construct Reliability and Validity