This paper develops a new measure of "quality of the business environment" that complements existing measures of "quality of life". An annual panel of these measures is constructed and analyzed for 37 cities from 1977 to 1995. Findings indicate that many cities attractive to firms are...

While prior analyses have provided substantial evidence of elevated default probabilities among mortgages originated to lower income, less credit worthy and minority borrowers, those risks may be offset by the reduced prepayment probabilities of those loans. To the investor in FHA-insured...

This paper estimates an option-based hazard model of the competing risks of FHA mortgage termination. Results indicate that the elevated default risks of loans originated among lower credit quality and minority borrowers are more than offset by the damped prepayment speeds of those loans, so as...

Fluctuations in the stock market and in house values over the course of recent years have led to renewed macroeconomic policy debate as regards the effects of financial and housing wealth in the determination of consumer spending. This research assembles a unique matched sample of household data...

This paper explicates the intra-metropolitan geography of minority homeownership. In so doing, the analysis applies individual level Census data from the Washington D.C., Chicago, and Los Angeles metropolitan areas to estimate three-level nested logit models (NMNL) of household mobility,...

This research presents new findings on the economic cost of terror. To that end, we provide evidence of changes in house prices in the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem in the wake of the 2000 Second Palestinian Intifada. During that period, Gilo suffered from sporadic and ongoing gunfire from the...

This paper investigates the risk-return relationship in determination of housing asset pricing. In so doing, the paper evaluates behavioral hypotheses advanced by Case and Shiller (1988, 2002, 2009) in studies of boom and post-boom housing markets. The paper specifies and tests a multi-factor...

This paper explores integration and contagion among US metropolitan housing markets. The analysis applies Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) house price repeat sales indexes from 384 metropolitan areas to estimate a multi-factor model of U.S. housing market integration. It then identifies...

This paper explores integration and contagion among US metropolitan housing markets. The analysis applies Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) house price repeat sales indexes from 384 metropolitan areas to estimate a multi-factor model of U.S. housing market integration. It then identifies...

This paper explores integration and contagion among US metropolitan housing markets. The analysis applies Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) house price repeat sales indexes from 384 metropolitan areas to estimate a multi-factor model of U.S. housing market integration. It then identifies...