Trends in residential house values can be expressed by changes in House Price Indexes (HPIs). Since the recent housing crash, distressed sales have increased in numbers and have led to concerns about how they affect HPIs. This paper has three parts. First, FHFA’s standard HPIs are compared to...

To help inform the ongoing policy debate concerning the risks associated with second mortgages, the paper rigorously evaluates the effect of second liens on the performance of first mortgages. Using a dataset that combines credit bureau information with mortgage performance data, the statistical...

Responding to concerns that house price appraisals are biased measures of true home values, some researchers have suggested that repeat-transaction house price indices should be calculated using only price data from home purchases. This paper builds on previous literature and presents an...

Trends in residential house values can be expressed by changes in House Price Indexes (HPIs). HPIs are based on observed prices and help guide real estate activities. Since the recent housing crash, distressed sales have increased in numbers and have led to concerns about their effects on market...

The repeat-transactions model that is used in the construction of OFHEO's house price index (HPI) does not perfectly control for changes in the average condition of the housing stock. If the value of home improvements is not exactly offset by the effects of home depreciation, the HPI could...

Nondisclosure laws and other factors have hindered the production and release of median home price in many areas across the country. This paper attempts to fill the gaps and develops a simple approach to estimating median prices for a geographically complete set of areas. The methodology begins...

Under the repeat-transactions framework for constructing house price indexes, the paper analyzes the technical challenges associated with producing unbiased price indexes for homes in distinct price tiers. The basic problem is that the “tier” to which a given home truly belongs is...

The paper discusses the impact of distressed sales on recent estimates of house price changes in California. Using information from Notice of Default (NOD) filings in that state, the paper compares the usual FHFA HPI against an index computed after removing sales occurring after NOD filings. The...