There is a growing consensus that reform is needed for the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It is often suggested that the connections between the GSEs and the federal government should be permanently severed and the firms reduced in size so that their...

This paper describes six stylized patterns among housing markets in the United States that potential explanations of the housing boom and bust should seek to explain. First, individual housing markets in the U.S. experienced considerable heterogeneity in the amplitudes of their cycles. Second,...

While in standard housing economics housing is regarded as an asset and a consumption good, we study in this paper the consequences for housing prices if housing is also a status good. More concretely, if a family's housing wealth relative to others is an important marker for relative status in...

How do list and sale prices relate to each other over the market cycle? Using a dataset of over 650,000 Irish property listings and transactions between 2006 and 2012, this research examines the relationship between list and sale prices. It applies hedonic methods and exploits information on...

Using data on household portfolios and mortgage originations, we find that households residing in a city with few publicly traded firms headquartered there are more likely to own an investment home nearby. Households in these areas are also less likely to own stocks. This only-game-in-town...

In this chapter, we review and discuss the large body of research that has developed over the past 10-plus years that explores the interconnection of macroeconomics, finance, and housing. We focus on three major topics -- housing and the business cycle, housing and portfolio choice, and housing...

The securities industry is more important than ever to the New York City economy, and a protracted downturn in the industry's employment could seriously hurt the overall job picture. Increased stability in other New York City industries, however, could help soften the economic effects of such a...

A hedonic pricing model is estimated to analyse the impact of railways on house prices in terms of distance to railway station, frequency of railway services and distance to the railway line. Correcting for a wide range of other determinants of house prices we find that dwellings very close to a...

This report summarises the scientific content and results of the European Science Foundation Exploratory Workshop on 'Economic Geography and European Finance' held at Jesus College, Oxford University, 16-19 September 2004. The objective of the workshop was to further our understanding of the...

The financing of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) plays a key role for the catching-up process of the East German economy after German reunification. German banks are often claimed to be too restrictive in their lending practices towards these firms. The present paper examines whether...