Remember the University of Maryland study concluding that "inclusionary zoning" makes housing more expensive overall? (Read about it HERE if you don't.) Now comes a study from New York University's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, which says the laws requiring some below-market affordable housing aren't having much effect.

From today's press release:

Objective, rigorous analysis of the San Francisco region finds no evidence that Inclusionary Zoning impacts either prices or production, while study of the suburban Boston area finds some evidence that Inclusionary Zoning programs resulted in small decreases in production and slight increases in prices.

... “Our analysis refutes the ‘sky-is-falling’ cries from IZ opponents; we find no evidence that IZ programs have reduced housing production in the San Francisco area, and find evidence of only slight effects on production in the Boston area,” says Vicki Been, Director of the Furman Center. “However, we found that IZ policies have produced only a modest number of affordable housing units, suggesting that IZ by itself is not a panacea for a community’s affordable housing challenges.”

The study was co-released by the Center for Housing Policy in Washington.