The recent surge in property values in China has been similar to the surge in the U.S before the crash in 2007. This raises concerns about whether China is destined to have a crash as well. We estimate similar models of property values for the two countries, in order to compare price dynamics...

This study looks at real estate price booms and busts in industrialised countries. Itidentifies major and persistent deviations from long term trends for 18 countries andestimates the probabilities of their occurrence using a Random Effects Panel Probitmodel over the period 1980-2007. It finds...

Viele Menschen teilen den Wunsch, möglichst lange und selbstbestimmt in der eigenen Wohnung und dem vertrauten Umfeld wohnen zu können. Im Fall eines Unfalls oder einer Erkrankung ist die eigenständige Lebensführung allerdings gefährdet. Durch die demografische Entwicklung altert die...

The paper analyses the development of the East German housing market after the reunification of the former German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990. We analyse the dynamics of the East German housing market within the framework of the wellknown stockflow model,...

Even though economic models have been relatively successful in explaining the long run patterns of house prices, they have more difficulties in explaining short run developments of the housing markets. However, the fact that during such ‘bubbles’ the spatial pattern of house prices, which...

In housing markets with asymmetric information list prices may signal unobserved properties of the house or the seller. Asymmetric information is the starting point of many models for the housing market. In this paper, we estimate the causal effect of list-price reductions to test for the...

Wohnen wird – zumindest in einigen Städten – zum Luxusgut, bezahlbarer Wohnraum zur Mangelware. Die Wohnungsbaupolitik muss drastisch verändert werden. Sollte der soziale Wohnungsbau ausgebaut, die Mietpreisbremse verschärft werden oder – im Gegenteil – auf beides weitgehend...

Ergänzend zu den Beiträgen im ifo Schnelldienst 16/2016 kommentiert Barbara Hendricks, Bundesministerin für Umwelt, Naturschutz, Bau und Reaktorsicherheit, die aktuelle Situation und stellt das »Bündnis für bezahlbares Wohnen und Bauen« vor.

This text deals with the topic of housing shortage vs. residential vacancy – housing market intervention as a task of politics? At the beginning there will be some basic assertions on the relation of market vs. state, especially bearing in mind, the overall importance and social responsibility...

There are four major challenges for housing policy in the near and midterm future: First, rents in many German conurbations have been rising significantly faster than incomes over the last five years. Though it can rightly be argued, that the suggested policies of the new German federal...