In recent years, housing prices across the country have soared. Southern New England has been no exception. The map shows the percent change in median sales prices for single-family homes for each city and town in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island between 2000 and 2004.

Traditional programs designed to assist low- and moderate-income (LMI) renters and prospective homebuyers may not be sufficient given the rapidly accelerating Greater Boston real-estate market. Kathleen Gill explores how a growing shortage of affordable housing impacts LMI households and what...

An affordable homeownership program that began with residents rolling up their sleeves and digging into hard work has evolved to become more efficient and effective. Franklin County's Paul Douglas explains why Rural Development Inc. got started and how its on-the-job learning has led to changes.

The call for employers to offer housing benefits has been made in Greater Boston - but to little avail so far. Looser labor markets and lack of familiarity with a new concept are some reasons why employers are hesitant. What are the prospects for employer assisted housing and what is being done...

This paper examines periods of pronounced rises and falls of real house prices since 1970 in eighteen major industrial countries, with particular focus on the lessons for monetary policy. We find that real house prices are pro-cyclical—co-moving with real GDP, consumption, investment, CPI...

2001 Annual Report essay

The strong rise in home prices since the mid-1990s has raised concerns over a possible bubble in the housing market and the effect of a sharp price decline on the U.S. economy. This article assesses two measures frequently cited to support a bubble-the rising price-to-income ratio and the...

This paper was presented at the conference "Policies to Promote Affordable Housing," cosponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and New York University's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, February 7, 2002. It was part of Session 4: Housing Subsidies and Finance, and is a...

After a long period during which house prices were not affected by distance from Chicago's central business district, values now decline by more than 8 percent per mile. Annual appreciation rates in house prices are higher in neighborhoods close to the city center with large minority...

The rapid rise of real estate prices in recent years has led to fears of a housing price bubble. But, to determine whether there has been a bubble–and whether the bubble is bursting–one needs to know what home prices “should” be. The authors estimate a simple model of home prices and...