Property Tax Exemptions and Senior Home Affordability
Summary
Property tax exemptions are often targeted at seniors to improve home affordability and help them age in place. In this project, I aim to answer the question of whether these policies affect the ownership and location decisions of seniors and what impact this has on their health. Specific Aim 1: How have property tax exemptions for seniors affected home prices across the United States? Use event study regression analysis and comparative interrupted time series (CITS) methodologies on “big data” from Zillow to estimate the effect of property tax exemptions on home prices. Specific Aim 1a: Who are the winners and losers of property tax exemptions? Use merged American Community Survey (ACS) demographic data to estimate which demographic groups (age, race, ethnicity, etc.) are the recipients of the price change by stratifying and/or interacting the above models. Specific Aim 2: How have property tax exemptions affected location and ownership decisions for seniors? Use spatial methods and amenity location data (such as health facilities) to estimate how seniors change their location decisions based on the incentives associated with property tax exemption. Specific Aim 2a: Have other major housing policies affected the location decisions and ownership decisions of seniors? Use CITS to investigate if major policies like the first-time homebuyer tax credit, that targeted younger buyers, pushed senior homebuyers out of the market. Specific Aim 3: How have property tax exemptions affected the health of seniors? Investigate the impact on health for those pushed into less desirable locations due to the exemptions as well as those that experienced wealth increases from price appreciation and tax exemption using similar analysis to aim 1.