This paper uses a unique data set with housing consumption, well-being measures and time use patterns to explore the implications of homeownership. After controlling for income, housing quality and health, female homeowners are not better off than renters by a variety of measures, both global...

This paper presents new evidence on the utility – or well-being – derived from housing. There are three areas of focus: 1) how people feel at home versus outside home and if there is a positive athome differential, especially with respect to housing as a complementary good to family life; 2)...

This paper argues that during the housing bubble, housing finance markets failed to price risk correctly because of information failure caused by the complexity and heterogeneity of private-label mortgage-backed securities and structured finance products. Addressing the informational problems...

There are more than 5 times as many 30-year mortgages than 15-year mortgages in circulation even though the 15-year mortgage interest rate is consistently lower than the 30-year mortgage interest rate. The relative popularity of longer term 30-year mortgages can be attributed both to the tax...

This paper provides a simple, generic introduction to, and survey of, the transactional structures and rudimentary principles applicable to Shari`ah-compliant home purchase financings. The paper summarizes six of the most frequently used home purchase financing structures used by banks and...

This article conducts an attribution analysis for German real estate funds. The performance of real estate funds within Germany is dissected into property returns, liquidity returns, leverage and expenses. Furthermore a model is set up to explain annual fund returns using the factors investor...

This paper documents developments in mortgage credit and the housing sector in Latin America over the past decade, and compares them with those of other emerging economies. In particular, it examines the real estate and mortgage markets to assess whether (i) growth in mortgage credit is...

While suburbanization and decentralization are familiar concepts in urban economics, there is a possibility that land gradients will not simply flatten over time, but actually invert themselves. This would mean that the traditional CBD or downtown ceases to act as the pinnacle or nucleus of the...

How much information should brokers supply on a website? The Internet allows brokers to reduce the cost of providing information to potential buyers. However, brokers may risk disintermediation if they provide too much information. This paper presents a model of a broker's choice of how much...

This study investigates the impact of Internet usage on the financial performance of residential real estate brokerage firms using a database of over 1,700 observations. Factor loadings and a factor score for Internet usage are developed. The results show that Internet use is positively related...