The Unassuming Economist

On cross-country:

• Cross-Country Comparison: Home Rent Growth – Core Logic

On the US:    

• There Was No Housing Bubble in 2008 and There Isn’t One Now. Some smart economists are challenging the conventional wisdom that the Great Recession was triggered by out-of-control home prices. – Bloomberg
• Apartment Occupancy Just Hit a Historic High. Is That Good? There’s a silver lining to astronomic U.S. rent hikes: Most tenants won’t pay them, because they’re already locked into their leases. – Bloomberg
• Housing costs swell, hampering home buyers and pushing up rents – New York Times
• Call for Papers: The Mortgage Market Research Conference: Call for Papers – Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
• Mortgage Rates Hit Highest Levels Since Spring 2020. Increase in cost comes after ultralow rates have fueled boom in home sales and prices – Wall Street Journal
• Wall Street Is Using Tech Firms Like Zillow to Eat Up Starter Homes. A business that’s touted as a convenience for home sellers has created a secret pipeline for big investors to buy properties, often in communities of color. – Bloomberg  
• People Don’t Want to Move to Shrinking Cities. Slowing population growth could worsen America’s geographic divides, with home prices skyrocketing in some places and plummeting in others. – Bloomberg
• Rising sea levels threaten affordable housing – NPR
• ‘Magic’ Multigenerational Housing Aims to Alleviate Social Isolation. Two co-living communities set to break ground this year seek to address loneliness, as well as the caregiving and affordable-housing shortages, in the U.S. – Wall Street Journal
• U.S. mortgage interest rates surge by most in almost 2 years – Reuters
• Can You Game Your Way Out of American Housing Injustice? A new video game uses a choose-your-own adventure format to interrogate the illusion of choice in the U.S. housing system. – Bloomberg
• There’s Still No Amazon for Housing, But Fintech’s Working on It. Buying and selling a house is a large, complicated transaction, so companies are focusing on making small parts of it easier. – Bloomberg

On China

• China Plans Millions of Low-Cost Rental Homes in Equality Push – Bloomberg

On other countries:  

• [Germany] Germany Fights Soaring Home Prices With Curbs on Mortgage Lending. As in the U.S. and other economies, pandemic financial support has sparked a surge in property investment and borrowing in the country – Wall Street Journal
• [Germany] Germany asks banks to build buffers as property market heats up – Reuters  
• [Hong Kong] Why Hong Kong housing and office markets are facing very different supply shocks – South China Morning Post  
• [United Kingdom] U.K. House Prices Surged Last Year at Fastest Pace Since 2004 – Bloomberg
• [United Kingdom] Help to Buy has pushed up house prices in England, says report. Lords claim flagship £29bn policy would have been better spent on social housing – FT
• [United Kingdom] Letter: Britain must encourage more affordable housing – FT
• [United Kingdom] As the North Cotswolds Get Hipper, Home Values Soar. House prices in this section of the English countryside have risen thanks to the flurry of celebrity residents who have turned the north Cotswolds into the place to see and be seen – Wall Street Journal