Bundled parking and vehicle ownership: Evidence from the American Housing Survey

Abstract

This article estimates the effect of bundled residential parking—parking whose price is included in the rent or purchase price of housing—on household vehicle ownership. Using data from the American Housing Survey, I show that the odds of households with bundled parking being vehicle-free are 50–75 percent lower than the odds of households without bundled parking, while households in dense center cities near transit are twice as likely to be without vehicles if they lack bundled parking. I also find substantial, though less stable, evidence that bundled parking encourages driving among commuters who have vehicles. These results are robust to a wide variety of demographic and land-use controls and to controls for residential self-selection. Examining self-selection shows that housing without bundled parking is sufficiently scarce and geographically concentrated that people who search for it may not find it. Four metropolitan areas, which hold 11 percent of U.S. housing units, hold more than 40 percent of its housing without bundled parking. Overall, the results suggest that when cities require parking with residential development, they increase vehicle ownership and use.