Homer Hoyt

Biography Education Hoyt was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri and attended the University of Kansas, graduating Phi Beta Kappa aged 18, with both an A.B. and an A.M. He went on to earn a J.D. in 1918 and a Ph.D. in economics in 1933, both from the University of Chicago. At the FHA, Hoyt pioneered the use of maps for business decision making and public policy analysis. In a 1939 FHA report, Hoyt argued that segregation was an obvious necessity and that racially-mixed neighborhoods result in decreased land values.

Research

Hoyt's 1933 doctoral dissertation, "One hundred years of land values in Chicago: The relationship of the growth of Chicago to the rise of its land values, 1830-1933," is among the most cited dissertations of all time and is still cited regularly today.

Hoyt made a number of theoretical contributions to land economics and urban planning. Hoyt's work developed into the sector model, which replaced Ernest Burgess' concentric zone theory as the dominant theory of urban morphology, until it was itself supplanted by the multiple nuclei model. Additionally, Hoyt refined the method of economic base analysis, which enabled municipal and state governments to assess potential population growth based on the mix of basic and non-basic employment within their economies.

Hoyt was also an active contributor to the field of real estate appraisal. With co-author Arthur M. Weimer, Hoyt wrote the successful text book Principles of Real Estate, which was published in seven editions.

The Homer Hoyt Institute In his later years, Hoyt sought to bridge the gap between academic economists and the real estate industry. Towards this end, Hoyt underwrote the formation of the Homer Hoyt Institute in 1967. The Institute remains active and prominent in the fields of land economics and real estate studies today. Notable initiatives of the Institute include the Hoyt Academic Fellowship, the Maury Seldin Advanced Studies Institute, the Weimer School, and the Weimer School Fellowship. Weimer School Fellows include many prominent academics in the field of real estate economics.

Selected publications According to Hoyt; Fifty Years of Homer Hoyt / Articles on law, real estate cycle, economic base, sector theory, shopping centers, urban growth, 1916–1966. [Washington, D.C., 1966] Autobiography of Homer Hoyt; Michael Hoyt and Jean Hoyt. No city: photocopy, 2005. Available at Avery Library, Columbia University. "More Than Sector Theory: Homer Hoyt's Contributions to Planning Knowledge," Journal of Planning History 6, 3 (2007):248-271 by Robert Beauregard. The Structure and Growth of Residential Areas in American Cities; Homer Hoyt. Washington DC: Federal Housing Administration, 1939. One Hundred Years of Land Values in Chicago; Homer Hoyt. New York : Arno Press, 1970, [c1933]