Using data for 70 U.S. metropolitan areas, this study explores spatial heterogeneity in house price dynamics. We use recent advances in panel econometrics that allow for spatial heterogeneity, cross-sectional dependence, and non-stationary but cointegrated data. We test for spatial differences...

Explaining asset price booms poses a difficult question for researchers in macroeconomics: how can large and persistent price growth be explained in the absence large and persistent variation in fundamentals? This paper argues that boom-bust behavior in asset prices can be explained by a model...

We study the genesis of the 2000s housing boom in Denmark, a country with a similar mortgage finance system to the U.S., but where subprime mortgages were absent, regulatory loan-to-value ratios were unchanged, and there was no reallocation of credit towards low income borrowers. Our results...

Borrowers in states with non-recourse mortgage law face limited liability on their mortgage loans. We show that non-recourse law causes larger swings in housing prices by encouraging speculative investments when housing markets are in a boom cycle. We find that mortgage lending pricing does not...