In this study, we develop and test a methodology to assess the impact of affordable lending efforts on homeownership rates. More narrowly, we examine the impact of using flexible underwriting guidelines, primarily changes in the downpayment and housing burden requirements, on the affordability...

We test whether consolidation leads to increased profits through increased operating economies of scale. For a sample of apartment REITs, we find that economies of scale with respect to portfolio acquisitions existed in 1994 and 1995, however, this advantage has declined over time. While growth...

We find that the real estate market is vulnerable to sustained deviations from long-run equilibrium prices, in part due to the role played by the banking system. The impact of the banking system in magnifying the real estate cycle occurs because high real estate prices increase the economic...

Our study investigates the role of speculation in real estate cycles. We find that even a simple model of lagged supply response to price changes and speculation is sufficient to generate real estate cycles. Second, the volatility of prices - the biggest purported downside of "speculation" - is...