HOW MUCH DOES NEW JERSEY'S RED TAPE AND OVER REGULATION
COST HOME BUYERS?

The hidden tax that new home buyers pay in New Jersey is the cost of over-regulation by municipal, county and state government. This adds an additional 20% - 30% to the price of a new home. The book Red Tape and Housing Costs: How Regulation Affects New Residential Development by Michael L. Luger and Kenneth Temkin explores the delicate balance between regulations designed to promote the production of sound housing in safe community environments and the red tape in which housing developers become entangled. Builders of new residential housing bemoan the regulatory barriers they confront-- requirements and constraints that add thousands of dollars to their housing costs in delivering new units to the market. Less visible but equally damaging are what Luger and Temkin term the "opportunity costs of delay" that cause developers to lose critical momentum and mistime the market. Published in 1999, the book is based partly on data from a study conducted for the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.

Order your copy of the book from the Center for Urban Policy Research, a component of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University at http://policy.rutgers.edu/cupr/pressPHP/specification_details.php?id=235.