Homer Hoyt

Homer Hoyt (1895–1984) was a land economist, a real estate appraiser, and a real estate consultant. He conducted path-breaking research on land economics, developed an influential approach to the analysis of neighborhoods and housing markets, refined local area economic analysis, and was a major figure in the development of suburban shopping centers in the decades after World War II. His sector model of land use remains one of his most well-known contributions to urban scholarship.

Hoyt attended the University of Kansas from which he graduated at the age of 18 with a Phi Beta Kappa key. He also earned a J.D. in 1918 and a Ph.D. in economics in 1933, both from the University of Chicago. Between 1918 and 1933, he taught economics, business law, and accounting at various colleges. His dissertation, One Hundred Years of Land Values in Chicago, led to numerous opportunities to work as a real estate consultant. In 1934, he joined the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) as Principal Housing Economist and later taught as a visiting professor at MIT and Columbia University before opening a consulting firm in 1946. He maintained an active practice consulting on real estate development (with a specialization in suburban shopping malls) and economic analysis. Hoyt also invested in real estate, out of which came the money to establish the Homer Hoyt Institute.

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