Foreign Buyer Taxes and the Rental Affordability Gap
School of Cities · University of Toronto
I am an Assistant Professor in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Virginia Tech’s School of Public and International Affairs.
My research examines how housing supply transformations shape urban inequality. I pursue this research through three connected areas:
- Housing supplyHow do policies shape housing supply—including new construction, redevelopment, and preservation of the existing affordable stock—and with what consequences for affordability and access to opportunity?
- Race / immigrationHow do race and immigration structure housing outcomes, particularly for Asian Americans?
- Data infrastructureHow can different data sources be validated and used to study housing dynamics?
My work appears in the Journal of the American Planning Association, Urban Studies, Housing Policy Debate, Cityscape, and the Journal of Urban Affairs. My research has been supported by the Russell Sage Foundation and other funders.
I earned my Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley. Previously, I worked with the Terner Center for Housing Innovation, UC Berkeley D-Lab, Urban Displacement Project, and Seoul Institute.
Recent work
All publicationsHow Does Upzoning Impact Residential Mobility Among Low-Income Households?
Housing Policy Debate · with Jenna Davis and Karen Chapple
The Implications of Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing Sales for Residential Mobility
Journal of the American Planning Association · with Carolina Reid
2026 JAPA Article of the Year
News
2026
October
- I discussed strategies for long-term NOAH affordability with practitioners at a Terner Center for Housing Innovation webinar, When NOAH Changes Hands: Scaling up Strategies for Long-Term Affordability. Carolina Reid and I also published a Terner Center blog post, Preserving NOAH as an Anti-Displacement Strategy.
- Carolina Reid and I received the Journal of the American Planning Association 2026 Article of the Year award from the American Planning Association for The Implications of Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH) Sales for Residential Mobility.
- I was interviewed for the San Francisco Chronicle article “Chinese Americans once flocked to S.F.’s Chinatown and the west side. Now they’re moving elsewhere.”
- I presented new research on NOAH sales and renovation in New York City’s rent-stabilized apartments at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Annual Conference in Pittsburgh.
September
- New policy brief, Foreign Buyer Taxes and the Rental Affordability Gap, published by the School of Cities at the University of Toronto.
August
- New book review in Journal of Urban Affairs, on Lauren E. M. Everett’s Fortunate People in a Fortunate Land: At Home in Santa Monica’s Rent-Controlled Housing.
May
- I completed my Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley. I’ll be joining Virginia Tech’s Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning program (Arlington campus) as an Assistant Professor this fall!
April
- New article on upzoning and residential mobility published in Housing Policy Debate with Jenna Davis and Karen Chapple.
February
- New article on naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) and residential mobility published in Journal of the American Planning Association with Carolina Reid.