ABSTRACT
Housing is of central importance in both the national economy and the individual’s standard of living. Deterioration can also result from neighborhood changes – social, economic, or physical. Homeownership and rental housing differ in many ways, but a crucial difference is that with homeownership, the householder obtains the mortgage directly, whereas with rented housing, there is an intermediary investor. As houses decline in quality, they become cheaper and affordable by those with lower incomes. Moreover, housing quality typically depends on the level of maintenance of the building and the neighborhood in which it is located. Lower-income groups are more numerous than those of higher income and thus will constitute a large demand for houses vacated by the latter. Among the many reasons why filtering fails to meet low-income needs is that some housing is abandoned before it becomes cheap enough. Housing affordability continues to plague the country.
