Using the Market Value Analysis to Map Recommended Housing Policies

Policymakers often struggle with the fact that policy options are seldom visualized on a map. Indeed policy decisions depend upon a multitude of variables that are rarely tied to geographical boundaries. Yet, it is often at the geographic level that policymakers want to see an impact. Thanks to the Market Value Analysis (MVA), it is possible to identify the housing market intervention policies that will be the most effective based on geographic characteristics.

The 2015 New Orleans MVA—released in March—together with the HousingNOLA: 10 Year Strategy and Implementation Plan provide that level of spatial insight. HousingNola was produced in 2015 by the Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance (GNOHA), a collaborative of home builders and community development organizations. The GNOHA report included a Neighborhood Typology map to recommended areas of the city where new affordable housing units should be built and where existing affordable housing units should be preserved.

By overlaying the MVA and GNOHA Neighborhood Typology maps, it was possible to identify the policies that would be most successful in each geographic area. For instance, where GNOHA suggested the construction of new affordable housing units (in Topaz, Ruby, and Diamond neighborhoods), the MVA overlay highlighted block groups where new affordable housing units could be achieved through regulatory policies such as Inclusionary Zoning—due to a relatively strong market with a lack of vacant lots and where new affordable housing might be better achieved through a more traditional land-banking approach—due to a relatively weak market with a higher concentration of vacant and adjudicated properties.

As a GNOHA partner, the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority produced the HOUSING NOLA 2015 MVA to provide the analytical background to the ongoing efforts of maintaining affordability in New Orleans. More information on the integration of the two maps can be found here: https://goo.gl/w8ksw0