The Blackwell Companion to the Economics of Housing willhelp students and professionals alike to explore key elements ofthe housing economy: home prices, housing wealth, mortgage debt,and financial risk. Features 24 original essays, including an editorialintroduction and three section overviews Includes 39 world-class authors from a mix of educational andfinancial organizations in the UK, Europe, Australia, and NorthAmerica Broadly-based, scholarly, and accessible, serving students andprofessionals who wish to understand how today’s housingeconomy works Profiles the role and relevance of housing wealth; themismanagement of mortgage debt; and the pitfalls and potential ofhedging housing risk Key topics include: the housing price bubble and crash; thesubprime mortgage crisis in the US and its aftermath; the linksbetween housing wealth, the macroeconomy, and the welfare ofhome-occupiers; the mitigation of credit and housing investmentrisks Specific case studies help to illustrate concepts, along withnew data sets and analyses to illustrate empirical points
This paper examines the role increasing personal wealth and home equity withdrawal (HEW) have had in the decline in the personal saving rate in the United States. It does so by comparing the U.S. experience with those of Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Mortgage market liberalization and innovation should reduce household cash flow and collateral constraints while making housing wealth more liquid as HEW becomes easier over time. Regression analysis indicates the expected negative relationship between U.S. saving and net worth, with a somewhat smaller coefficient than in previous studies. HEW is estimated to have a temporary negative impact on saving of the order of 20 cents on the dollar.
Housing and Home Unbound pioneers understandings of housing and home as a meeting ground in which intensive practices, materials and meanings tangle with extensive economic, environmental and political worlds. Cutting across disciplines, the book opens up the conceptual and empirical study of housing and home by exploring the coproduction of the concrete and the abstract, the intimate and the institutional, the experiential and the collective. Exploring diverse examples in Australia and New Zealand, contributors address the interleaving of money and materials in the digital commodity of real estate, the neoliberal invention of housing as a liquid asset and source of welfare provision, and the bundling of car and home in housing markets. The more-than-human relations of housing and home are articulated through the role of suburban nature in the making of Australian modernity, the marketing of nature in waterfront urban renewal, the role of domestic territory in subversive social movements such as Seasteading and Tiny Houses, and the search for home comfort through low-cost energy efficiency practices. The transformative politics of housing and home are explored through the decolonizing of housing tenure, the shaping of housing policy by urban social movements, the lived importance of marginal spaces in Indigenous and other housing, and the affective lessons of the ruin. Beginning with the diverse elements gathered together in housing and home, the text opens up the complex realities and possibilities of human dwelling.
Available online via SciVerse ScienceDirect, or in print for a limited time only, The International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home, Seven Volume Set is the first international reference work for housing scholars and professionals, that uses studies in economics and finance, psychology, social policy, sociology, anthropology, geography, architecture, law, and other disciplines to create an international portrait of housing in all its facets: from meanings of home at the microscale, to impacts on macro-economy. This comprehensive work is edited by distinguished housing expert Susan J. Smith, together with Marja Elsinga, Ong Seow Eng, Lorna Fox O'Mahony and Susan Wachter, and a multi-disciplinary editorial team of 20 world-class scholars in all. Working at the cutting edge of their subject, liaising with an expert editorial advisory board, and engaging with policy-makers and professionals, the editors have worked for almost five years to secure the quality, reach, relevance and coherence of this work. A broad and inclusive table of contents signals (or tesitifes to) detailed investigation of historical and theoretical material as well as in-depth analysis of current issues. This seven-volume set contains over 500 entries, listed alphabetically, but grouped into seven thematic sections including methods and approaches; economics and finance; environments; home and homelessness; institutions; policy; and welfare and well-being. Housing professionals, both academics and practitioners, will find The International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home useful for teaching, discovery, and research needs. International in scope, engaging with trends in every world region The editorial board and contributors are drawn from a wide constituency, collating expertise from academics, policy makers, professionals and practitioners, and from every key center for housing research Every entry stands alone on its merits and is accessed alphabetically, yet each is fully cross-referenced, and attached to one of seven thematic categories whose ‘wholes' far exceed the sum of their parts
Essential reading for professional investors, risk managers, regulators, central bankers, and real estate professionals, Risk in the Global Real Estate Market: International Risk Regulation, Mechanism Design, Foreclosures, Title Systems, and REITs takes an international look at the ways in which U.S.-style constitutional laws, financial laws, and real estate laws in various countries affect global economics and risk; and analyzes specific constraints that deter market development such as Asset Liability Matching, inappropriate financial products, land title systems, inefficient constitutions and human biases. The sub-prime mortgage crisis (that began around 2006) and the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–2010 disrupted the economies of various countries and exposed many of the psychological, social, and economic problems inherent in the legal/risk infrastructure for mortgages, land title systems, REITs, securitization, and pensions. In this remarkable new book, Michael Nwogugu explains how these processes and statutes are unconstitutional and inefficient, and how they influence demand for housing, real estate prices, retirement savings, household wealth, consumer disposable income, marriage opportunities, job markets, crime, and regional economic growth. The resulting major economic and public health problems have continued to reduce the quality-of-life of nations, and continue to cause permanent declines in wealth, increases in crime and delinquency, high divorce rates, depression, and inadequate job creation, among other problems. The book examines a range of fields—including mechanism design, psychology, risk finance, and corporate governance; and emphasizes Constitutional economics as a distinct dimension of risk analysis. Risk in the Global Real Estate Market makes a compelling case about how constitutional torts increase information asymmetry, transaction costs, agency problems, and compliance costs, as well as inefficiency in real estate transactions. These problems, the book argues, are not unique to the United States, but also affect Commonwealth countries and other nations that have developed regulations that are similar to, or are based on U.S. commercial, securities, and or constitutional laws. Risk in the Global Real Estate Market presents a novel analysis of the sub-prime crisis (that first began in 2006), the failure of securitization (CMBS/MBS) markets, the Global Financial Crisis, and socio-economic problems caused by traditional mortgages and securitization. The book reveals that many of the statutes and processes that define mortgages, foreclosures, securitization, and REITs in the United States (and many common-law countries and nations that have adopted American-style real estate regulations) are fundamentally unconstitutional and inefficient, and have lasting negative effects on consumer psychology, the demand for real estate, price discovery in property markets, economic growth, and quality of life. The book examines the nature of constitutional torts and property rights as the foundation for business transactions and economic growth within the context of risk regulation, interstate commerce, takings, and legislation. Risk in the Global Real Estate Market introduces new theories of consumer psychology and institutional dynamics in real estate transactions; presents new theories of takings, and also surveys psychology/psychiatry studies (based on data from various countries) that confirm the harmful effects of mortgages, securitization, and foreclosures. Using elements of mechanism design, Michael Nwogugu develops new efficient financial products (Mortgage-Alternatives products), and presents a policy framework for a unified “Mortgage-Alternatives” market for the CEE/CIS region and China. He also explains why Asset Liability Matching hinders lending, capital formation and risk management, especially in developing countries.
House prices and mortgage debt have moved to centre stage in the management of national economies, regional development and neighbourhood change. Describing, analysing and understanding how housing markets work within and across these scales of economy and society has never been more urgent. But much more is known about the macro-scales than the microstructures; and about the economic rather than social drivers of housing market dynamics. This book redresses the balance. It shows that housing markets are social, cultural and psychological – as well as economic – affairs. This multidisciplinary approach is helpful in understanding the economic staples of supply, demand, price and information. It also casts new light on the emotional and political economy of markets.
This issue features a timely paper by Vladimir Klyuev and Paul Mills on the role of personal wealth and home equity withdrawal in the decline in the U.S. saving rate. Lusine Lusinyan and Leo Bonato explain how work absence in 18 European countries affects labor supply and demand. And a paper by Paolo Manasse (University of Bologna) entitled "Deficit Limits and Fiscal Rules for Dummies" examines fiscal frameworks.
An essential new guide to navigating macroeconomic risk. The shocks and crises of recent years—pandemic, recession, inflation, war—have forced executives and investors to recognize that the macroeconomy is now a risk to be actively managed. Yet unreliable forecasting, pervasive doomsaying, and whipsawing data severely hamper the task of decoding the landscape. Are disruptions transient and ephemeral—or permanent and structural? False alarms are costly traps, but so are true structural changes that go undetected. How can leaders avoid these macro traps to make better tactical and strategic decisions? In this perspective-shifting book, BCG Chief Economist Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak and Senior Economist Paul Swartz provide a fresh and accessible way to assess macroeconomic risk. Casting doubt on conventional model-based thinking, they demonstrate a more powerful approach to building sound macroeconomic judgment. Using incisive analysis built upon frameworks, historical context, and structural narratives—what they call "economic eclecticism"—the book empowers readers with the durable skills to assess continuously evolving risks in the real economy, the financial system, and the geopolitical arena. Moreover, the authors' more nuanced approach reveals that the all-too-common narratives of economic collapse and decline are often false alarms themselves, while the fundamental strengths of our current "era of tightness" become visible. With rational optimism rather than gloom, Shocks, Crises, and False Alarms speaks to the key financial and macroeconomic controversies that define our times—and provides a compass for navigating the global economy. Rather than relying on blinking dashboards or flashy headlines, leaders can and should judge macroeconomic risks for themselves.
