scholarly journals Search, Liquidity, and the Dynamics of House Prices and Construction

2014 ◽  
Vol 104 (4) ◽  
pp. 1172-1210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen Head ◽  
Huw Lloyd-Ellis ◽  
Hongfei Sun

The dynamics of house prices, sales, construction, and population growth in response to city-specific income shocks are characterized for 106 US cities. A dynamic model of search in the housing market in which construction, the entry of buyers, house prices, and sales are determined in equilibrium is then developed. The theory generates dynamics qualitatively consistent with the observations and a version calibrated to match key features of the US housing market offers a substantial quantitative improvement over models without search. In particular, variation in the time it takes to sell induces transaction prices to exhibit serially correlated growth. (JEL D83, R21, R23, R31)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Gurney ◽  
Jianming Liang ◽  
Geoffrey Roest ◽  
Yang Song

<p>Urban areas are rapidly growing and are acknowledged to dominate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the Earth’s atmosphere. They are also emerging as centers of climate mitigation leadership and innovation. However, fundamental quantitative analysis of urban GHG emissions beyond individual city case studies remains challenging due to a lack of comprehensive, quantitative, methodologically consistent emissions data, raising barriers to both scientific and policy progress. Here we present the first such analysis across the entire US urban landscape, answering a series of fundamental questions about emissions responsibility, emissions drivers and emissions integrity. We find that urbanized areas in the U.S. account for 68.1% of total U.S. fossil fuel carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) emissions. Were they counted as a single country, the 5 largest urban emitters in the US would rank as the 8<sup>th</sup> largest country on the planet; the top 20 US cities as the 5<sup>th</sup> largest. In contrast to their dominant overall proportion, per capita FFCO2 emissions in urbanized areas of the US are 7% less than the country as a whole, particularly for onroad gasoline emissions (-12.3%).</p><p>Contrary to previous findings, we find that emissions grow slower than urban population growth in Eastern US cities, particularly for larger urban centers. The Western US, by contrast, shows emissions growing proportionately with population. Much of the difference between Eastern versus Western cities is determined by the onroad emissions sector. This finding, in particular, suggests that “bigger is better” when considering GHG emissions and U.S. urban population growth.</p><p>Finally we find large and persistent differences between the results presented here and 57 self-reported urban inventories. The mean difference between the self-reported inventories and the analysis here is -24% (mean absolute difference: 44.3%) with the majority of self-reported values lower than quantified in this study.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (192) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuko Hashimoto ◽  
Gee Hee Hong ◽  
Xiaoxiao Zhang

How does a shrinking population affect the housing market? In this study, drawing on Japan’s experience, we find that there exists an asymmetric relationship between housing prices and population change. Due to the durability of housing structures, the decline in housing prices associated with population losses is estimated to be larger than the rise in prices associated with population increases. Given that population losses have been and are projected to be more acute in rural areas than urban areas in Japan, the on-going demographic transition in Japan could worsen regional disparities, as falling house prices in rural areas could intensify population outflows. Policy measures to promote more even population growth across regions, and avoid the over-supply of houses, are critical to stabilize house prices with a shrinking population.


2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Philip Arestis ◽  
Rosa Gonzalez-Martinez

House prices in Israel have registered unprecedented growth rates in the last few years. At first glance, these hikes could be explained by the evolution of fundamentals such strong population growth and favourable macroeconomic conditions, i.e. low interest rates. However, further investigation is needed in order to explore whether there is a misalignment between house prices and their fundamentals. Firstly, this paper investigates the role of construction costs in the evolution of house prices. Secondly, this contribution decomposes the ?price-to-rent? ratio into fundamentals, frictions and bubble episodes for a better understanding of the recent trends of the market.


Subject Expectations for the housing market in the coming year. Significance Under the outgoing government, the state intervened in the housing market to a degree not seen in decades in an effort to check rising prices. That policy has been mostly successful but is coming under pressure from increasing costs and a widening fiscal deficit. Impacts Demand will be supported by a buoyant economy, relatively rapid population growth and doubts about government ability to ensure supply. The pace of growth of supply may begin to fall behind demand over the coming months, regardless of policy direction. Israel’s heavy reliance on Chinese materials and migrant labour mean construction could be impacted by the Wuhan coronavirus. Odds of a new government finding a successful successor scheme are poor given fiscal constraints and a track record of quick fixes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (174) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Alter ◽  
Zaki Dernaoui

This paper studies the US housing market using a proprietary and comprehensive dataset covering nearly 90 million residential transactions over 1998–2018. First, we document the evolution of different types of investment purchases such as those conducted by short-term buyers, out-of-state buyers, and corporate cash investors. Second, we quantify the contributions of non-primary home buyers to the housing cycle. Our findings suggest that the share of short-term investors grew substantially in the run-up to the global financial crisis (GFC), which amplified the boom-bust cycle, while out-of-state buyers propped up prices in some areas during the recession. An instrumental variable approach is employed to establish a causal relationship between housing investors and prices. Finally, we show that the recent rise of shadow bank lending in the residential market is associated with riskier mortgages, and explore its implications for non-primary home buyers and its effects on house prices and rents.


Author(s):  
Michael Mascarenhas

Three very different field sites—First Nations communities in Canada, water charities in the Global South, and the US cities of Flint and Detroit, Michigan—point to the increasing precariousness of water access for historically marginalized groups, including Indigenous peoples, African Americans, and people of color around the globe. This multi-sited ethnography underscores a common theme: power and racism lie deep in the core of today’s global water crisis. These cases reveal the concrete mechanisms, strategies, and interconnections that are galvanized by the economic, political, and racial projects of neoliberalism. In this sense neoliberalism is not only downsizing democracy but also creating both the material and ideological forces for a new form of discrimination in the provision of drinking water around the globe. These cases suggest that contemporary notions of environmental and social justice will largely hinge on how we come to think about water in the twenty-first century.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2198894
Author(s):  
Peter Phibbs ◽  
Nicole Gurran

On the world stage, Australian cities have been punching above their weight in global indexes of housing prices, sparking heated debates about the causes of and remedies for, sustained house price inflation. This paper examines the evidence base underpinning such debates, and the policy claims made by key commentators and stakeholders. With reference to the wider context of Australia’s housing market over a 20 year period, as well as an in depth analysis of a research paper by Australia’s central Reserve Bank, we show how economic theories commonly position land use planning as a primary driver of new supply constraints but overlook other explanations for housing market behavior. In doing so, we offer an alternative understanding of urban housing markets and land use planning interventions as a basis for more effective policy intervention in Australian and other world cities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1358
Author(s):  
Michael R. Greenberg

From 1850 through approximately 1920, wealthy entrepreneurs and elected officials created “grand avenues” lined by mansions in New York City, Chicago, Detroit, and other developing US cities. This paper examines the birthplaces of grand avenues to determine whether they have remained sustainable as magnets for healthy and wealthy people. Using data from the US EPA’s EJSCREEN system and the CDC’s 500 cities study across 11 cities, the research finds that almost every place where a grand avenue began has healthier and wealthier people than their host cities. Ward Parkway in Kansas City and New York’s Fifth Avenue have continued to be grand. Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C., Richmond’s Monument Avenue, St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans, and Los Angeles’s Wilshire Boulevard are national and regional symbols of political power, culture and entertainment, leading to sustainable urban grand avenues, albeit several are challenged by their identification with white supremacy. Among Midwest industrial cities, Chicago’s Prairie Avenue birthplace has been the most successful, whereas the grand avenues of St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit, and Buffalo have struggled, trying to use higher education, medical care, and entertainment to try to rebirth their once pre-eminent roles in their cities.


Author(s):  
Nik Theodore

For decades El Salvador has been reliant on migration, mainly to the US, to provide remittances and an outlet for widespread underemployment. The deportation of tens of thousands of migrants annually by the United States, however, threatens to exacerbate problems of joblessness, poverty, and informality in local economies, calling into question the suitability of prevailing economic development strategies. This study proposes an alternative approach—labor force-based development—that was initially proposed to assist US cities confronting widespread job losses following deindustrialization. Through a survey of 198 Salvadorans who were apprehended by US immigration authorities and deported, this article documents deportees’ employment experiences in El Salvador and the US, tenure in their primary occupation, education and training obtained, and the localities to which they will return. It also provides recommendations for improving the employment outcomes of deportees. Given that a substantial proportion of deportees have worked in the construction industry, opportunities exist for designing workforce development programs that meet the needs of jobseekers as well as local communities facing housing shortages.


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