I define a composite amenity that provides aesthetic and consumption value to local residents: Urbanity. A novel data set of geo-tagged photos shared in internet communities serves as a proxy for urbanity. From the spatial pattern of house prices and photos I identify the value of urbanity in...

We reconcile conflicting evidence on the magnitude of the elasticity of substitution of land for capital, which is a key determinant of the relationship between the price of land and the density of land use. We first compare the performance of classic estimation approaches with a new estimation...

A dramatic decline in the maximum loan amount eligible for FHA mortgage insurance in the Salt Lake City metropolitan statistical area between 2013 and 2014 provides a natural experiment in the impact of borrowing constraints on housing decisions. Using a differences-in-differences design within...

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...

Automated valuation models have been in use at least for the last fifty years in both academia and practice, while a proper definition was coined only in the last decade. This could be mostly backed by the fact that research done on the automated valuation models is mostly empirical and...

This paper presents a selected review of what the literature discusses in terms of modelling and forecasting house prices. In particular, it distils fundamental and “other” determinants of house prices used in economic models and identifies the most commonly used econometric approaches to...

We examine the role transaction costs play, particularly the costs related to search and bargaining, in impeding or delaying real estate market transactions. In a theoretical model, we show that agents' incentives are influenced by transaction costs in a way that will increase a home's marketing...