Housing affordability is a hotly debated issue on global scale. A lack of affordable housing of decent quality is a chronic problem in urban areas. Governments try to alleviate it by stimulating homeownership among middle-income households and providing social housing for the low-income...

Unlike other developed countries, the U.S. has a high proportion of long-term fixed-rate mortgages (30 years). This is partly because the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE), which operate in the secondary mortgage market, reduce the interest rate of these contracts. This document measures...

This chapter examines certain of the developments in the application of economic theory and in empirical and policy analysis with respect to housing markets in general and urban housing markets in particular. The majority of the material refers to US and UK experience with some English language...