The expansion of Houston’s rail transit network and related transit-oriented development will transform the city’s growth pattern for decades to come. Environmental, public health, and accessibility improvements may accrue, however, what impact will the added infrastructure have on Houston’s neighborhoods, particularly on lower income households more sensitive to displacement pressures? This professional report seeks to clarify and evaluate the housing-transit connection occurring along the city of Houston’s light rail corridors by triangulating between revealed and stated preferences, at both the national and local level. The literature review reveals light rail transit induces neighborhood change significantly more than other transit modes, and, that both access and design-related features catalyze land value appreciation. Consequently, meta-studies on transit impact were reviewed to provide a framework to analyze all three corridors in Houston. Current household characteristics in Houston’s transit corridors reveal striking similarities to those that have incurred drastic neighborhood change in other parts of the country. These studies foreshadow in-migration of higher-income, owner-occupied, and more car-user households into light rail transit neighborhoods. Accordingly, these findings inform my call for local and state efforts to anticipate neighborhood change by leveraging the production of more affordable housing for the corridors through Houston’s special purpose districts and the state’s distribution of low-income housing tax credits. / text

Housing constitutes a major part of the real wealth of many countries as well as households overall wealth portfolio. As a result, there is the continuous need to measure house price dynamics and understand the housing markets especially at the local levels as opposed to the national and regional levels. This thesis focuses on the Aberdeen housing market in Scotland and considers a number of issues in relation to measuring and understanding the price dynamics of the study area. The thesis empirically highlights why house price indices should be confined to the local markets, produces constant-quality house price indices for the study area, measures the accuracy of five different index construction models, tests if temporal aggregation affects the construction of house price indices, and applies the indices to examine the relationship between new residential construction and various determinants and also estimates house price elasticity of supply for the local housing market. The thesis adopts a quantitative research approach. The dataset for the house price index construction is obtained from the Aberdeen Solicitors' Property Centre and spans from January 2000 to December 2010 with about 57,000 property transactions and includes both the house prices and a number of physical and locational characteristics. The dataset for examining the determinants of new residential construction is also obtained from a number of sources including new housing starts from the Scottish Government Statistics and building warrants granted from the Aberdeen City Council. The thesis finds that the national and regional house price indices do not portray accurate picture of house price trend in the local housing market and so it is important for price trend analysis to be confined to the local level. The study also finds that in the construction of house price indices, the lower level of temporal aggregation, that is, monthly and quarterly is to be preferred and at this level of temporal aggregation, the explicit time variable hedonic and the Quigley's hybrid models perform better by producing the lowest mean squared errors. At the broader level of temporal aggregation however, the strictly cross-sectional hedonic model does better. In general, the repeat-sales method is found to be the least preferred method of constructing house price indices. The thesis also finds that changes in house prices, time on the market, planning regulation, lagged stock, and lagged and future housing starts are the main factors that influence new residential construction in Aberdeen. These factors have the expected signs with the changes in house prices having a large positive coefficient of about 3.7% in the current period. All these factors are measured at the local housing market level. The national variables, material costs and interest rates, however do not have any effect on new housing construction in Aberdeen. This suggests that when modelling the local housing market, local variables are more useful than the national variables. These influential local variables would not be measured properly or would be ignored entirely when the national or regional housing markets are modelled and stresses the need to conduct housing studies at the local level. The price elasticities of supply estimated are in the range of 2.0-3.2 for housing starts, and 0.01-0.02 for housing stock. The starts elasticities are higher than most of the local housing markets elasticities in the UK. Thus, private developers in Aberdeen respond more to a change in house price by initiating new construction than most of the local authority districts in the UK. These findings have a number of practical and policy implications and the methods could be applied to estimate house price indices for the other local housing markets in the UK when the data system in the UK is improved. More studies are needed at the local levels in the UK so that some of the issues raised in the thesis can be explored further.

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Many elderly people of Aboriginal origin find themselves displaced as they move from rural reserves into unfamiliar urban settings. The majority are forced to relocate to cities for medical purposes and fall between the cracks of an already fragile support system. Responsibility for their needs, particularly in relation to housing, is not clearly assigned to band organizations or governments. They seek shelter wherever they can. Some move in with family members or friends. Others secure units in non-profits, while several reside in single room occupancy hotels or rooming houses. In Winnipeg, and throughout Canada, specific numbers and individual circumstances of this demographic remain relatively unknown. Preliminary research indicates many are living in unhealthy and unsafe environments. This study begins to document the situations and conditions in which elderly people of Aboriginal origin are currently living. This task is achieved through a review of pertinent literature and through empirical work in the form of focus groups and semi-structured interviews. Participants include elderly Aboriginals and officials from Winnipeg and across Canada. The thesis aims to construct a body of evidence which highlights the housing needs of elderly Aboriginals. It also aims to assist the Aboriginal Senior Resource Centre (ASRC) in supporting elderly people of Aboriginal origin in Winnipeg and concludes with recommendations for policy makers, arguing for immediate implementation as well as further study.

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This thesis reviews the first step in a project which will address the impacts that substandard housing has on the health and education of first nations residents. This thesis covers the findings from home inspections at a First Nations Community (FNC). In 2012, 159 homes were inspected. The inspection was visual and looked for mould and other deficiencies in the homes. Measurements of the interior air were also taken. Homes were substandard due to poor building materials, installation, and overall neglect regarding maintenance. Homes had high mould counts and are unhealthy environments for people. This thesis outlines common deficiencies and provides recommendations for the rehabilitation of the homes, and for future construction. Recommendations include that homes be built with durable materials, designed for their environment, and for education and training regarding home maintenance to be provided. Subsequent phases of this project will address the health and education of the residents.

Since the end of the second World War, the development of economic theory has proceeded in two paths: on the one hand there has been the task of consolidating the achievements of Keynesian doctrine and of welding the new aggregative concepts to the main body of neo-classical thought; on the other hand a vanguard of theorists has ventured into the little-explored territory of economic dynamics. As always, the systematic development of supporting historical and institutional data goes on behind the front-runners. This thesis is concerned mainly with the former of these developments. It deals with the monetary aspects of private investment in a single sector of the economy, and attempts to resolve certain differences between the traditional and the modern approaches to money matters. As such, it might be called a study in the applied theory of interest. Expressed otherwise, the thesis examines the financial mechanism by means of which the gap between savings and investment in the mortgage market was bridged in Great Britain. The most general conclusion drawn from the study is that the institutional framework distorted the allocation of loanable funds and served to impede the functioning of the price mechanism. This being the case, a monetary policy based on the assumption of a freely operating price system in the money market was bound to be unrealistic. The contributions of this thesis fall under three headings. [...]

Improving access to affordable housing is often approached through efforts to increase the supply of such housing, as the need to make better use of existing resources and coordinating the efforts of housing providers is often overlooked. A central housing registry in Winnipeg would be one approach to improving coordination and better access for low-income households to affordable housing. This study explores different examples of housing registries that exist in Canada and the United States. It provides insight into the benefits and challenges of housing registries through web searches and a survey. A focus group was also used to gain insight on the local context for developing a central housing registry. This research will increase the awareness of the benefits of a central housing registry and provides recommendations on how to approach the development and implementation of a central housing registry.

Many elderly people of Aboriginal origin find themselves displaced as they move from rural reserves into unfamiliar urban settings. The majority are forced to relocate to cities for medical purposes and fall between the cracks of an already fragile support system. Responsibility for their needs, particularly in relation to housing, is not clearly assigned to band organizations or governments. They seek shelter wherever they can. Some move in with family members or friends. Others secure units in non-profits, while several reside in single room occupancy hotels or rooming houses. In Winnipeg, and throughout Canada, specific numbers and individual circumstances of this demographic remain relatively unknown. Preliminary research indicates many are living in unhealthy and unsafe environments. This study begins to document the situations and conditions in which elderly people of Aboriginal origin are currently living. This task is achieved through a review of pertinent literature and through empirical work in the form of focus groups and semi-structured interviews. Participants include elderly Aboriginals and officials from Winnipeg and across Canada. The thesis aims to construct a body of evidence which highlights the housing needs of elderly Aboriginals. It also aims to assist the Aboriginal Senior Resource Centre (ASRC) in supporting elderly people of Aboriginal origin in Winnipeg and concludes with recommendations for policy makers, arguing for immediate implementation as well as further study.