The great housing convulsion that buffeted America between 2000 and 2010 has historical precedents, from the frontier land boom of the 1790s to the skyscraper craze of the 1920s. But this time was different. There was far less real uncertainty about fundamental economic and geographic trends,...

Housing markets experience substantial price volatility, short-term price change momentum, and mean reversion of prices over the long run. Together, these features, particularly at their most extreme, produce the classic shape of an asset bubble. In this chapter, we review the stylized facts of...

The great housing convulsion that buffeted America between 2000 and 2010 has historical precedents, from the frontier land boom of the 1790s to the skyscraper craze of the 1920s. But this time was different. There was far less real uncertainty about fundamental economic and geographic trends,...

Real estate booms have regularly occurred throughout the world, leaving painful busts and financial crises in their wake. Real estate is a natural investment for more passive debt investors, including banks, because real estate's flexibility makes it a better source of collateral than production...