| Abstract | Opportunity Zones are a place-based incentive designed to promote economic welfare in distressed neighborhoods by providing tax credits to investors. The policy has undergone much academic scrutiny as there is a vested interest from urban development groups to understand if it helps cities, and a vested interest from investors who wish to know if it will provide them with better investment opportunities. In this paper, I analyze single family home prices in two primarily suburban Opportunity Zones in the Dallas-Fort Worth region to try to understand how this policy affects areas lacking previous investment opportunities. This is accomplished by looking at the price of each home and running regression analysis to see if there is a correlation between Opportunity Zone status, and price. Further, I synthesize relevant research that takes a look at the policy and comparable policies to gain insight on what other researchers have already concluded. Lastly, I provide my thoughts and recommendations on this policy and the goals it seeks to accomplish as it relates to the bigger picture. |
