The Unassuming Economist

On cross-country:

• A new frontier for skyscrapers. Why African governments are building higher – The Economist

Working papers and conferences:

• Conference: Housing affordability: what is new? On September 26, 2025 – Institute of Public Finance

On China:

• China’s urban planners could determine the future of city life. They are betting big on interconnected city clusters – The Economist

On Australia and New Zealand:

• [Australia] Slashing migration would actually lead to higher house prices in Australia. Here’s why. Economic modelling reveals the effects of eliminating migration for a decade on growth, the workforce and the budget – The Guardian
• [Australia] Aussie home prices to rise on interest rate cuts, affordability worries persist: Reuters poll – Reuters
• [Australia] Data missing on two of nation’s ‘biggest issues’ as Australian Bureau of Statistics fumbles key survey. Economics expert criticises last-minute cancellation of report that would shed light on cost-of-living and housing crises – The Guardian
• [Australia] Is the war on NIMBYs enough to fix Australia’s housing crisis? – Financial Review
• [New Zealand] Why New Zealand Is Relaxing Its Property Rules for Rich Foreigners – Bloomberg

On other countries:  

• [Belgium] Properties in Ardennes on the rise again. The price of a house in the Ardennes has risen by more than 13% in the past year, according to figures from notaries. – The Brussels Times
• [Canada] The housing market — where are we? – CIBC
• [Hong Kong] The Plot to Make Beijing Save the Hong Kong Property Market – Bloomberg
• [Korea] South Korea to tighten mortgage rules in Seoul, boost housing supply – Reuters
• [Spain] El precio de la vivienda de segunda mano rompe todos los récords y supera los niveles de la burbuja inmobiliaria. Las casas usadas se encarecieron un 12,8% en el segundo trimestre y superan la marca de 2007, según el INE. El índice general de precios repuntó un 12,7%, la mayor subida en 18 años – El Pais
• [Spain] El mercado inmobiliario español consolida su fase expansiva en 2025 – CaixaBank
• [United Kingdom] Average UK house price rises to record £299,331, says Halifax. Increase of 0.3% in August marks third consecutive monthly rise, exceeding market expectations – The Guardian
• [United Kingdom] UK house prices rise 0.3% in August, Halifax says – Reuters
• [United Kingdom] Why Gen X was London’s luckiest property generation. It’s not the boomers who had it easiest when they first bought homes, but the cohort that followed them – FT
• [United Kingdom] Fixing Britain’s broken property-tax system will take courage. The Labour government is unlikely to go there – The Economist
• [United Kingdom] U.K. House Sales Continued to Slow in August, Report Says. Sales activity is seen broadly flat over the next three months – Wall Street Journal
• [United Kingdom] UK housing market slows as buyers retreat, uncertainty swirls, RICS survey shows – Reuters

On prices, rent, and mortgage:    

• Asking Rents Mostly Unchanged Year-over-year – Calculated Risk
• Why Are More Millionaires Renting? The number of millionaire renters in the United States more than tripled between 2019 and 2023. – New York Times
• Black applicants twice as likely to be rejected for a US mortgage. FT analysis finds all ethnic minorities have lower probability of being granted home loans than white counterparts – FT
• Mortgage Applications Today: Homeowner Refinancing Swells While New Loan Demand Falls for Third Straight Week – Realtor.com
• Mortgage rates hit lowest daily level since fall 2024. Rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage hit their lowest level since fall of last year as a newly released August jobs report saw a mere 22,000 jobs added – Quartz
• September ICE Mortgage Monitor: House Prices Up Slightly Year-over-year – Calculated Risk
• Purchase Activity Slips Despite Lower Mortgage Rates – NAHB
• Homebuyers ‘On Rate Watch’ as 30-Year Mortgages Drop to 6.5% – Bloomberg
• Housing Market Grinds to a Halt in Late-Summer Doldrums – Realtor.com 
• What will happen with House Prices? – Calculated Risk
• August 2025 Monthly Housing Market Trends Report – Realtor.com
• Your Home Value May Be Rising—but Equity Erosion Could Wipe Out Those Gains – Realtor.com

On sales, permits, starts, and supply:    

• Lots Still in Relatively Short Supply – NAHB
• ‘Can You Print a House?’: God, Robots and the U.S. Housing Crisis. Jason Ballard, an entrepreneur who once thought he would be a preacher, believes 3-D printing is the solution to fill the affordable housing gap in the United States. – New York Times
• Trump’s Housing Chief Wants to Build, But With What? HUD Secretary Scott Turner says it’s time to put millions more Americans in homes. He’s also standing by while his agency’s staff and funding disappear. – Bloomberg
• New York’s Airbnb Crackdown, in Force for Two Years, Hasn’t Improved Housing Supply. Apartment buildings have fewer rowdy tourists now, but rents keep rising – Wall Street Journal
• Lumber Prices Are Flashing a Warning Sign for the U.S. Economy. Wood prices are sliding and mills are cutting back because of uncertainty over tariffs and a building slump – Wall Street Journal
• Share of New Homes with Patios Edges Down for First Time in Fifteen Years – NAHB
• 1st Look at Local Housing Markets in August – Calculated Risk
• Part 1: Current State of the Housing Market; Overview for mid-September 2025 – Calculated Risk
• Who Are NAHB Remodelers? – NAHB
• Mapped: Metros Where Homes Are Selling the Fastest as U.S. Market Stalls – Realtor.com
• Year-over-Year Building Material Price Growth Advances – NAHB
• Parking Trends in Newly Completed Single-Family Homes, 2024 – NAHB
• Why 15 million vacant homes won’t solve the housing crisis
• What cities get right and wrong about tackling empty houses. – Vox

On other developments:    

• Stuck: How Housing Regulation Ended America’s Mobility Revolution – University of Chicago
• Misplaced Blame: Targeting Institutional Investors Won’t Solve the Housing Crisis – AEI
• US housing agency rehires sacked staff ahead of Fannie and Freddie IPO. Almost a third of the mortgage giants’ workforce was cut as part of Trump’s purge of the federal government – FT
• Black Homeownership Rate Drops to Lowest Level Since 2021 – Redfin
• Housing 101 – Marginal Revolution
• US housing market reaches record $55.1 trillion – Zillow 
• New Book: The Projects: A New History of Public Housing – AEI
• Trump Vows To Expand Homeownership to Millions More American Families – Realtor.com
• How Trump’s D.C. crackdown is affecting the real estate market – Axios
• How a National Housing Emergency Could Open More Doors for First-Time Buyers – Realtor.com

On cross-country:

• In the first quarter of 2025, global real house prices fell by 1.0% year on year (yoy), representing a slower pace of decline compared with the second half of 2024 (–1.6%). Prices in advanced economies continued to recover, rising by 1.2% yoy. Meanwhile, emerging market economies experienced a slower decrease, mainly driven by a continued fall in Asia. – BIS
• Why South Korea and Japan are turning against foreign homebuyers. South Koreans and Japanese are understandably irked by the ease with which foreigners can acquire real estate when locals are struggling – South China Morning Post

Working papers and conferences:

• Conference: Opening Doors: Data and Analytics Shedding Light on Housing Challenges – Reserve Bank of Australia
• Does rent control increase tenant unemployment? – Journal of Urban Economics
• Precision Without Labels: Detecting Cross-Applicants in Mortgage Data Using Unsupervised Learning – Philadelphia Fed

On China:

• China’s Social Housing Policies Steer Local Government and LGFV Investment – Fitch

On Australia and New Zealand:

• [Australia] Australia house prices climb in August as demand outstrips supply, Cotality says – Reuters
• [Australia] Australia Home Prices Rise for Seventh Month After Rate Cuts – Bloomberg
• [Australia] House prices to set to jump after months of steady growth – Financial Review
• [Australia] Housing pain looms this spring as first-home buyers fight investors. Rate cuts, strong demand and a lack of supply will turn the traditional spring selling season into a pitched battle for the same homes. It will end in tears. – Financial Review
• [New Zealand] New Zealand Home-Building Approvals Stuck in 15-Month Slumber – Bloomberg 
• [New Zealand] New Zealand reverses course to let some foreign investors buy homes – Reuters
• [New Zealand] New Zealand Opens Luxury Home Market to Golden-Visa Holders – Bloomberg
• [New Zealand] New Zealand House Prices Drop to Two-Year Low in Weak Economy – Bloomberg 

On other countries:  

• [Canada] Toronto Home Prices Keep Sliding as Buyers See Jump in Listings – Bloomberg 
• [Costa Rica] Costa Rica’s Residential Property Market Analysis 2025 – Global Property Guide
• [Egypt] Egypt scraps decades-old rent caps, fuelling eviction fears – Reuters
• [France] France’s Residential Property Market Analysis 2025 – Global Property Guide
• [Hungary] Hungary’s Residential Property Market Analysis 2025 – Global Property Guide
• [India] India Affordable Housing – 2025. This report examines supply-side challenges in India’s affordable housing sector and puts forth viable suggestions to address them – Knight Frank
• [Israel] Israel’s Residential Property Market Analysis 2025 – Global Property Guide
• [Ireland] Ireland’s Residential Property Market Analysis 2025 – Global Property Guide
• [Mexico] La crisis de la vivienda detrás de las protestas contra la gentrificación en México. En Monterrey o Ciudad de México, los precios de compra y renta de vivienda se han triplicado en la última década, motivados por un rezago habitacional en deuda – El Pais
• [Spain] Hasta 23 euros por un metro cuadrado de alquiler: así se han disparado los precios en cinco años – El Pais
• [Thailand] Thailand’s Residential Property Market Analysis 2025 – Global Property Guide
• [United Kingdom] UK house prices unexpectedly fell in August, Nationwide data shows – Reuters
• [United Kingdom] UK house prices in surprise fall amid high mortgage costs. Average price for a home drops by 0.1% to £271,079 in August compared with July, according to Nationwide – The Guardian
• [United Kingdom] UK lenders approved most mortgages in six months in July – Reuters
• [United Kingdom] UK lenders approved most mortgages for six months in July, says BoE. Data points to continued recovery in property transactions – FT
• [United Kingdom] Ministers urged to put brakes on offices in England being turned into homes. Housing providers and charities want development rights abolished amid concern over lack of affordable homes – The Guardian
• [United Kingdom] Making British homes affordable again. Politicians have long blamed a housing shortage for soaring prices, but it is tax reform that can make the market less dysfunctional – FT

From a paper by Floris Bukman:

“Military coups are a persistent feature of global politics, with nearly 90 incidents recorded worldwide between 1996 and 2023, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Such events typically disrupt economic performance, causing declines in GDP growth, high inflation rates, reduced foreign direct investment (FDI), and increased unemployment. However, the severity and duration of these economic outcomes vary significantly across countries. This thesis addresses this gap by investigating whether institutional quality, measured by government effectiveness, moderates the short- to medium-term economic impacts of coups. Using a fixed-effects panel regression model covering all UN member states from 1996 to 2023, the findings suggest that countries with stronger institutions are better able to mitigate the typically negative economic effects of coups. These countries experience faster GDP growth recoveries, particularly evident in the second year after the coup and, in some contexts, as early as the first year. For inflation, FDI, and unemployment, the moderating effect of institutional quality was not statistically significant. By emphasising the important role of institutional quality following political instability, this research provides new insights into why some countries experience less severe economic impact and recover more quickly from military coups than others, and it offers directions for future research.”

From a paper by Arief Rahman, Vely Brian Rosandi, Galuh Syahbana Indraprahasta, Abdurrakhman Prasetyadi, Andi Yoga Saputra, and Andrea Emma Pravitasari:

“While the term rural transformation was first coined in the late 1960s, it is only recently that there has been a significant increase in interest in research employing this label. This particular corpus of research has evolved into a diverse body of literature. However, there is a lack of understanding of the academic landscape of this literature. The objective of this paper is to present a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the key characteristics, research topics, and evolution of this body of literature over the past six decades. To this end, the paper employed a science mapping tool, namely CiteSpace, to retrieve data from the Scopus database, combined with an exploratory review. A total of 580 academic articles published up to 2023 were identified and analysed. As the notion of rural transformation has evolved, the extant literature has expanded beyond its initial focus on economic and demographic changes to encompass a broader range of topics, including sustainability, young population, and spatiotemporal analysis, as well as to capture diverse experiences from around the globe. This diversity indicates the need to situate rural transformation within different geographical contexts. In addition to the recent trend, potential areas of research that may shape the future direction of rural transformation literature include environmental sustainability, contemporary globalisation, technological progress, and population dynamics.”