Reevaluating Filtering as a Provision of Affordable Housing: A Case Study of St. Louis

Is filtering still a useful mechanism in the provision of affordable housing in cities? We examine this question by analyzing St. Louis City, MO with an emphasis on local housing markets. Scholars are debating the potential of filtering to significantly alter the supply of affordable housing in the medium-term. We explore the effectiveness of filtering in St. Louis City, a midsized city that has experienced disinvestment, depopulation, and other challenges common in neoliberal cities. We employ a repeat-sales model, spatial mapping, and a best-fit multilinear regression model to investigate the connections between aging housing stock and market prices. We observe that the filtering process is not uniform across St. Louis City. The effects of filtering oscillate between inconclusive or powerful, depending on housing submarket dynamics. Evidence of downward filtering, in certain submarkets, is apparent in St. Louis and potentially boosting current and future affordable housing supply.