PIPE Workshop: Calvin Wright, USC Marshall

Does Political Representation Matter? Evidence from Congressional Redistricting and Housing Markets: Housing prices capitalize local amenities, but whether they also capitalize political rep- resentation is an open question. I study the 2022 congressional redistricting of Harris County, Texas, which reassigned roughly half of residential properties to new congres- sional districts, changing which member of Congress represents them while leaving neighborhoods, schools, taxes, and local public services unchanged. Using a panel of roughly one million properties from 2017 to 2025, I find that what matters is the par- tisan content of the reassignment: moving to a new district has no detectable average effect on values. A reassignment that flips the district’s partisan lean, by contrast, re- duces values by 6 to 8 percent, roughly $20,000 at the median property. Estimates are similar under synthetic difference-in-differences and in comparisons among reassigned properties within 500 meters of the new district boundaries. The losses are largest where the new district matches the neighborhood majority, leaving local political mi- norities without alignment at either the neighborhood or district level. The two layers of political alignment therefore appear to act as substitutes. Congressional boundaries can redistribute housing wealth even when they leave the physical and fiscal attributes of place unchanged.