After the collapse of housing markets during the Great Depression, the U.S. government played a large role in shaping the future of housing finance and policy. Soon thereafter, housing markets witnessed the largest boom in recent history. The objective in this paper is to quantify the...

Housing economists have questioned whether current US tax and government mortgage policy actually fosters homeownership. In this paper we examine this question interms of a dynamic general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents. The model allows households to make saving and shelter...

House prices in the United Kingdom rose rapidly in recent years. The run-up, larger than any other in U.K. history, leveled off early last year. House prices are currently declining at rates faster than those seen in the early 1990's downturn. The housing downturn, however, is far from complete....

Many recent papers have claimed that when housing services are treated separately from other forms of consumption in utility, a wide range of economic puzzles such as the equity premium puzzle can be explained. Our paper challenges these claims. The key assumption embedded in this literature is...

We construct a time series of the rent-price ratio for the owner- occupied stock of housing, starting in 1960:1, by merging micro data from the last five Decennial Censuses of Housing with price indexes for house prices and rents.

The Fed’s concern for housing is a relatively new phenomenon. Historically, house price bubbles have been localized and affected only areas with rapid growth. The latest housing bust, however, was a nationwide problem with important ramifications for employment and economic activity.

When broken down by price level - high-priced, mid-priced, and lower-priced homes - the housing boom and subsequent implosion affected each tier differently.

If borrowing capacity of indebted households is tied to the value of their home, house prices should enter a correctly specified aggregate Euler equation for consumption. I develop a simple two-agent, dynamic general equilibrium model in which home (collateral) values affect debt capacity and...