Daniel Kuhlmann

Interests

Teaching

Real estate and housing economics and policy.

Research

Land use, housing policy, urban planning, and urban economics.

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Journals/Publications

• Kuhlmann, D., & Rodnyansky, S. (2023).

  In Search of the Missing Middle: Historical Trends in and Contemporary Correlates of Permitting of 2–4 Unit Structures

  . Housing Policy Debate. doi:10.1080/10511482.2023.2244932
• Kuhlmann, D., Rongerude, J., Das, B., & Wang, L. (2023).

  Rental Property Owner Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Results from a Minneapolis, MN Survey

  . Housing and Society, 1-30. doi:10.1080/08882746.2023.2227541
• Kuhlmann, D., Rongerude, J., Wang, L., & Wang, G. (2023). A Statistical Machine Learning Approach to Identify Rental Properties From Public Data Sources. CityScape, 25(2), 367-378.
• Kuhlmann, D. (2021).

  Review: Housing Politics in the United Kingdom: Power, Planning, and Protest, by Brian Lund

  . Journal of Planning Education and Research. doi:10.1177/0739456x19859419
• Kuhlmann, D. (2021).

  Upzoning and Single-Family Housing Prices

  . Journal of the American Planning Association. doi:10.1080/01944363.2020.1852101
  More info

  Problem, research strategy, and findings In December 2018, the Minneapolis (MN) city council approved a new comprehensive plan that proposed eliminating single-family zoning restrictions throughout the city. In this project, I study the initial impact of this change on the sales prices of affected housing units. I estimate a series of difference-in-differences models comparing the sales price of houses within 3 km of the Minneapolis border in the year before and year after the city adopted the plan. I find that compared with similar unaffected properties in surrounding cities, the Minneapolis plan change was associated with a 3% and 5% increase in the price of affected housing units. In addition, there is some evidence that this price increase is due to the new development option it offers property owners. I find that the plan-related price increases are larger in inexpensive neighborhoods and for properties that are small relative to their immediate neighbors.Takeaway for practice By examining the short-term effect of the Minneapolis 2040 Plan’s elimination of single-family zoning, my study is useful for planners working in cities considering similar reforms. My analysis, though preliminary, suggests that there is indeed demand for denser development in the city. But the price increases associated with the upzoning redounds most directly to relatively small properties and those in inexpensive neighborhoods. Planners should thus be sensitive to how this type of change can affect housing affordability and housing stock diversity.
• Kuhlmann, D. (2020).

  Fixing Up after Tearing Down: The Impact of Demolitions on Residential Investment

  . Journal of Planning Education and Research. doi:10.1177/0739456x20934168
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  Does the presence of deteriorating housing affect nearby property owner’s decision to maintain their units? Does demolishing these distressed houses increase nearby homeowner’s maintenance investment? In this paper, I examine these questions by testing whether exposure to targeted demolitions of abandoned and distressed housing affects changes in the external condition of nearby houses. Using two waves of a property inventory in Cleveland, Ohio, my models suggest that, compared with a control group of houses located near vacant housing, proximity to demolitions decreases the likelihood that a property’s condition deteriorated between 2015 and 2018 and increases the likelihood that it improved.
• Kuhlmann, D. (2019).

  Coveting your neighbour’s house: understanding the positional nature of residential satisfaction

  . Housing Studies, 35(6), 1142-1162. doi:10.1080/02673037.2019.1651832
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  Do the characteristics of our neighbour’s house affect how we view our own home? In this paper, I examine the importance of local comparisons in housing assessments by testing whether the size of one’s home relative to others in their neighbourhood influences their housing satisfaction. I use a unique feature of the 1993 American Housing Survey, in which the US Census Bureau randomly surveyed 988 housing units around the country and a cluster of approximately 10 of their nearest neighbours. I use these data to test whether a unit’s relative size in its neighbourhood influences the occupant’s housing satisfaction while controlling for a series of occupant and unit characteristics. I find evidence that relative position matters. Those living in comparatively small houses are more likely to express dissatisfaction with their home than people living in units that are large relative to other houses in their neighbourhood cluster.
• Manville, M., & Kuhlmann, D. (2016).

  The Social and Fiscal Consequences of Urban Decline: Evidence from Large American Cities, 1980–2010

  . Journal of Urban Affairs. doi:10.1177/1078087416675741
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  We examine the fiscal consequences of sustained population loss in American cities. We find the starkest difference between growing and declining cities in their levels of social and economic distress: Declining cities have higher rates of poverty and crime. Our evidence also suggests that shrinking cities have less fiscal capacity than growing cities, although this relationship is complicated by an apparent nonlinearity: Shrinking and rapidly growing cities both have less fiscal capacity than high-demand cities that grow slowly. Lastly, both high distress and low fiscal capacity appear to predict further population loss. Together, our evidence suggests that population loss may both increase social problems and decrease the resources available to solve them, and that declining cities may enter vicious cycles that perpetuate further decline.