While homeownership provides consumption benefits, housing is risky. Using zip code housing returns, we document that homeowners are compensated for bearing housing risk. Our sample covers more than 9,000 zip codes across 135 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), representing almost 70% of the...

We model leverage cycles in the natural laboratory of a mature asset class, namely US Commercial Real Estate. In this setting we can observe entrepreneurs' asset values as well as debt balances. We model capital-market yields, as conditioned by market-wide leverage, an indicator of debt...

Asset prices in general, and real house prices in particular, are often characterized by a nonlinear data-generating process which displays mildly explosive behavior in some periods. Here, we investigate the emergence of explosiveness in the dynamics of real house prices and the role played by...

Many of the world's major cities have attracted a flurry of out-of-town (OOT) home buyers. Such capital inflows affect house prices, rents, construction, labor income, wealth, and ultimately welfare. We develop an equilibrium model, calibrated to the typical U.S. metropolitan area, to quantify...

We use Google search query data to develop a broad-based and real-time index of mortgage default risk. Unlike established indicators, our Mortgage Default Risk Index (MDRI) directly reflects households' concerns regarding their risk of mortgage default. The MDRI predicts housing returns,...

In general, investment grade bonds do not offer covenant protection. However, in the case of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), investment grade REITs tend to include a covenant package that outlines limits on leverage and requires maintaining certain fixed charges and interest coverage...

Eight consumption-based asset pricing models are developed, estimated and compared their capacities in accounting for the asset markets in Hong Kong. Results based on conventional metrics or recently developed econometric techniques deliver similar results: introducing housing into the...

Market-wide, stock market specific and real estate market specific risk - what kind of risk and to which extent drives the returns of listed real estate? Based on a structural asset pricing model calibrated to the empirical data in the U.S., we show that at least two thirds of the risk premium...

The internal rate of return is the prominent tool for measuring the performance of real estate asset and investment portfolios. However, it brings about some problems that make it unsatisfactory, such as (i) failing to capturing value added, (ii) being associated with implicit interim values...

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are often considered to be a distinct asset class. But, do REITs deserve this designation? While exact definitions for asset class vary, a number of statistical methods can provide strong evidence either for or against the suitability of the designation. The...