Back to Black … and Green? Location and Policy Interventions in Contemporary Neighborhood Housing Markets

The postwar flight from U.S. central cities led to widespread decay and devaluation in downtown housing markets. In a reversal of fortunes, distant housing prices soared while the dense urban core lagged. However, over the course of the 2000–06 housing bubble, we find that the markets in often ignored mid-sized cities shifted back to the downtowns. This research examines the factors influencing neighborhood housing values, including location and public policy interventions. Our analysis period begins with 2000 and has two end points: one at the close of the national housing bubble in 2006 and another in 2008 during the housing market collapse. Based on OLS and spatial regression analyses of percent increases in neighborhood housing values for Louisville, Kentucky, we find that higher downtown property increases are due in large part to historic preservation districts, a university–community partnership, and a HOPE VI site. We confirm that our findings hold even through the 2007–2008 housing crisis. We ultimately theorize that higher downtown appreciation is due to three factors: green urbanism, planning/policy successes, and the surprising non-significance of the traditionally negative predictor race (nonwhite percentage)

Historic Preservation’s Impact on Job Creation, Property Values, and Environmental Sustainability

This study examines the impacts of historic preservation on jobs, property values, and environmentalism in Kentucky and its largest city, Louisville. Kentucky is a national leader in preservation, ranking first in the White House’s Preserve America initiative with 73 recognized communities. Kentucky is an ideal place to study historic preservation and environmentalism. Tax incentive programs have been an effective tool for creating positive changes in historic areas. Historic preservation results in more job creation than most other public investments. In the presence of escalating gas prices and assorted environmental practices, it is shown how neighborhoods containing historic districts have higher increases in median neighborhood housing values than undesignated neighborhoods. This paper also demonstrates the link between environmentalism and historic preservation. Residents of historic urban neighborhoods exhibit more environmentally friendly behavior

Without Bias? Government Policy That Creates Fair and Equitable Property Tax Assessments

Ensuring accurate, unbiased residential property tax assessments is an important, and contentious, issue facing communities today, particularly in this era of fiscal and economic crisis. Furthermore, this question is critical because it involves important social justice issues. Past studies have shown inequities by race, class, and location with some neighborhoods paying more of their fair share in property taxes. This study looks at the reliability of tax-assessment data in a medium-sized American city—Louisville, Kentucky. In an effort to compare various housing data sources, this study contrasts three measures of neighborhood median housing value for 170 census tracts in Louisville in the year 2000: self-reported values (U.S. Census); sales prices (MLS); and tax assessments from the county’s property valuation administrator. We find that the effects of various neighborhood characteristics on the three property measures do not vary by measure. Furthermore, an assessments-to-sale ratio does not vary by traditional indicators of neighborhood distress including racial composition and proximity to the inner city. We conclude that assessments in Louisville are not biased by neighborhood and argue that several aspects of policy and administration present in Louisville make for more accountable and fair assessment practices—including tough state statutes, the election of the chief assessor, the use of aerial technology to view improvements, public transparency, the use of sales prices in reassessing properties, and the willingness to reassess downward communities hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis

Contemporary Neighborhood Housing Dynamics in a Mid-Sized U.S. City: The Policy Consequences of Mismeasuring the Dependent Variable

This paper analyzes median assessed residential property values using three different operationalizations of a tract-level dependent variable for a mid-sized US city: Louisville, Kentucky. We estimated the impacts of accessibility, sociodemographics, and housing characteristics as well as three policy interventions (HOPE VI, historic preservation districts, and university-community partnerships) on median assessed values and changes to them over the 2000–06 housing bubble. Our interpretation of models employing the three different operationalizations leads to different conclusions about neighborhood health and the efficacy of policy programs. Conventional operationalizations employed by advocates, such as looking at medians or raw dollar changes in median values, are likely to find that policy interventions have less of an impact compared to measuring recent percent changes in property values. Thus, we provide a methodological contribution that shows that percent changes should accompany traditional analysis in capturing the effects of contemporary policy interventions. Mismeasuring neighborhood housing markets has played a role in prematurely concluding that targeted policy programs in neighborhoods are ineffective. Based on our analysis, we invite academics and policymakers to rethink contemporary neighborhood housing dynamics

Investors: The Missing Piece in the Foreclosure Racial Gap Debate

Foreclosures have become one of the most important problems facing cities and the U.S. economy. However, not all communities are affected equally. Our goal is to better understand factors that affect variation in neighborhood foreclosures in a typical, mid-sized U.S. city — Louisville, Kentucky. While previous findings indicate that a key explanatory variable leading to rising neighborhood foreclosures is the proportion of racial minorities, our analysis finds that in a fully specified model, race does not predict differences between black and white homeowners. On the other hand, an analysis of investors predicts high foreclosure rates in African-American neighborhoods. The effect of percent nonwhite is caused by several key intervening variables, including the presence of investor foreclosures, the absence of neighborhood walkability, and the prevalence of high-cost loans. In the past, walkability and investor behavior have largely been ignored by social scientists studying neighborhood variation in foreclosures and the role of race in rising foreclosures. In this article, we examine how speculation by investors in majority African-American neighborhoods along with degree of walkability and the concentration of high-priced loans have contributed to recent increases in foreclosures and variation across neighborhoods. Together, the findings demonstrate that these three factors help to better explain the contemporary causes of greater foreclosures in African-American neighborhoods

Comprehensive EHMT1 variants analysis broadens genotype-phenotype associations and molecular mechanisms in Kleefstra syndrome

The shift to a genotype-first approach in genetic diagnostics has revolutionized our understanding of neurodevelopmental disorders, expanding both their molecular and phenotypic spectra. Kleefstra syndrome (KLEFS1) is caused by EHMT1 haploinsufficiency and exhibits broad clinical manifestations. EHMT1 encodes euchromatic histone methyltransferase-1-a pivotal component of the epigenetic machinery. We have recruited 209 individuals with a rare EHMT1 variant and performed comprehensive molecular in silico and in vitro testing alongside DNA methylation (DNAm) signature analysis for the identified variants. We (re)classified the variants as likely pathogenic/pathogenic (molecularly confirming Kleefstra syndrome) in 191 individuals. We provide an updated and broader clinical and molecular spectrum of Kleefstra syndrome, including individuals with normal intelligence and familial occurrence. Analysis of the EHMT1 variants reveals a broad range of molecular effects and their associated phenotypes, including distinct genotype-phenotype associations. Notably, we showed that disruption of the "reader" function of the ankyrin repeat domain by a protein altering variant (PAV) results in a KLEFS1-specific DNAm signature and milder phenotype, while disruption of only "writer" methyltransferase activity of the SET domain does not result in KLEFS1 DNAm signature or typical KLEFS1 phenotype. Similarly, N-terminal truncating variants result in a mild phenotype without the DNAm signature. We demonstrate how comprehensive variant analysis can provide insights into pathogenesis of the disorder and DNAm signature. In summary, this study presents a comprehensive overview of KLEFS1 and EHMT1, revealing its broader spectrum and deepening our understanding of its molecular mechanisms, thereby informing accurate variant interpretation, counseling, and clinical management.</p