The Unassuming Economist

On prices, rent, and mortgage:    

• US Housing Outlook: Higher Mortgage Rates Not Helpful – Apollo
• Mamdani confronts the politics of property taxes as rent freeze looms. Larger rental buildings, including those that would be affected by Mamdani’s proposed rent freeze, face a higher tax burden than other homes. – Politico
• Case-Shiller: National House Price Index Up 0.9% year-over-year in January. FHFA House Prices up 1.6% YoY in January – Calculated Risk
• Freddie Mac House Price Index Decreased in February; Up only 0.4% Year-over-year. Punta Gorda House Prices Down 23% from Recent Peak, Austin Down 18% – Calculated Risk
• FHFA’s Q4 National Mortgage Database: Outstanding Mortgage Rates, LTV and Credit Scores – Calculated Risk
• U.S. FHFA House Price Growth Continues to Decelerate in January – Haver Analytics
• US single-family home prices rise moderately in January, FHFA says – Reuters
• The Iran war is raising your mortgage rate. Inventory is finally rising, but war-driven increases in mortgage rates are making it harder for buyers to take advantage. – Slow Boring

On sales, permits, starts, and supply:    

• Are New York’s Environmental Concerns Worsening a Housing Shortage? Gov. Kathy Hochul is proposing to exempt a majority of new housing from state environmental reviews, arguing that sufficient safeguards are in place at the local level. – New York Times
• How to Keep the Suburbs Tenant-Free. The housing bill now in Congress may seek to increase the housing supply—but not for renters. – The Atlantic
• Japan Is Placing a Multibillion-Dollar Bet on the U.S. Housing Market. Home construction is slowing, but Japanese investors and builders are moving in anyway and soon will own 6% of the business in America – Wall Street Journal
• Reconciliation 2.0 Should Put Housing Supply First – Cato
• Supply Struggles: A Multifamily Melodrama – Richmond Fed 
• Trump Tax Law’s Affordable Housing Boost Hits Snag – Bloomberg

On other developments:    

• The Evolving Role of Single-Family Rental Investors—and How They Can Leverage Their Property Management and Rehab Capacity for Greater Impact – Urban Institute
• Housing Is Stable, but Still Out of Reach for Many Americans. As mortgage rates rise and home prices remain elevated, Wharton’s Susan Wachter explains why the U.S. housing market’s core problem is not financial instability, but affordability — and what can be done to address it. – Wharton
• Bad Policy Made Housing Unaffordable. We are simply asking the Trump administration to reform an outdated system. – Wall Street Journal

On cross-country:

• Bedrooms for sale highlight the depths of Europe’s housing crisis – Reuters
• Housing crisis: why prices are rising and what the EU is doing about it. Rising house prices and rents are a big concern for many Europeans. Read on for key facts and what the EU is doing about the issue. – European Parliament

Working papers and conferences:

• How Costly Is Permitting in Housing Development? – MIT
• When Monetary and Macroprudential Policies Tighten Together: Evidence from the Czech Mortgage Market – Czech National Bank
• Call for Papers: 6th Workshop on Rent Control on June 22-23 – DIW Berlin
• Nighttime light metrics for analysing urban-rural economic disparities: A case study in 36 Chinese metropolitan areas – Cities

On China:

• The rotten tail of China’s property bust. Officials want to spread the pain as widely as possible – The Economist
• March Kicks Off the Start of Homebuying Season: Are You Ready? – Realtor.com

On Australia and New Zealand:

• [Australia] Australia’s home prices keep rising in February, defying rate hike – Reuters
• [Australia] Sydney Home Prices Flatline While Rest of Australia Stays Strong – Bloomberg
• [Australia] Desperate first home buyers are fuelling price ‘up-crash’ at lower end of market, experts say. Biggest house price increases in February come in smaller capital cities as buyers undeterred by interest rate hikes – The Guardian
• [New Zealand] New Zealand Rolls Out the Welcome Mat for Wealthy American Home Buyers. The country’s budding startup scene and changes to its Active Investor Plus visa program have led to an influx of venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and advisers – Wall Street Journal
• [New Zealand] New Zealand House Prices Edge Higher, While Buyers Stay Cautious – Bloomberg

On other countries:  

• [Austria] Austria’s Residential Property Market Analysis 2026 – Global Property Guide
• [Canada] Toronto Home Prices Decline for a Ninth Month as Fears Persist – Bloomberg
• [Canada] Mortgage Renewal Mission Possible: The Final Reckoning – TD
• [Chile] Chile’s Residential Property Market Analysis 2026 – Global Property Guide
• [Finland] Finland’s Residential Property Market Analysis 2026 – Global Property Guide
• [Hungary] Hungary’s Residential Property Market Analysis 2026 – Global Property Guide
• [Indonesia] Indonesia’s Residential Property Market Analysis 2026 – Global Property Guide
• [Korea] Home Prices in Seoul’s Posh Districts Fall After Yearlong Rally – Bloomberg
• [Peru] Peru’s Residential Property Market Analysis 2026 – Global Property Guide
• [Romania] Romania’s Residential Property Market Analysis 2026 – Global Property Guide
• [Sweden] Sweden’s Residential Property Market Analysis 2026 – Global Property Guide
• Thailand’s Residential Property Market Analysis 2026 – Global Property Guide
• [United Kingdom] UK house prices ‘bunching’ to avoid mansion tax. Buyers and sellers are already pricing homes under new thresholds – FT
• [United Kingdom] UK house prices rise in February as chancellor avoids ‘negative speculation’. Rachel Reeves’s upcoming spring forecast has not led to slowdown, as property tax rumours did in November – The Guardian
• [United Kingdom] UK mortgage approvals fall to lowest level in 2 years. Drop reflects uncertainty among homebuyers around chancellor Rachel Reeves’ November Budget – FT
• [United Kingdom] How the UK mortgage market became so unstable. The market has not been this jittery in decades — and that was before the Middle East conflict – FT
• [United Kingdom] London landlord begins evictions ahead of new renters’ rights law. Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital owns several apartment blocks in capital as well as Trocadero centre in Piccadilly – FT  

On prices, rent, and mortgage:    

• Relief for US homeowners as mortgage rates hit lowest since 2022. Decline in benchmark rate helps bolster Donald Trump’s claim housing affordability is improving under his administration – FT
• The Disappearing American Mortgage. Young and working-class people aren’t getting on the property ladder anymore. – The Atlantic
• Price Growth for Building Materials Slows to Start the Year – NAHB
• A dangerous playbook is being revived for the giant US housing agencies. Increased buying of mortgage securities by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae marks a return to a risky business model – FT
• Did Mortgages with Locked-in Low Rates Lead to Rising House Prices? – Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies
• Asking Rents Continue to Decline Year-over-year – Calculated Risk
• House Price Appreciation by State and Metro Area: Fourth Quarter 2025 – NAHB

On sales, permits, starts, and supply:    

• Private Residential Construction Spending Edges Higher in December – NAHB
• Final Look at Local Housing Markets in January. Altos: Active single-family inventory was down 1.4% week-over-week – Calculated Risk
• Multifamily Absorption Rate Remains Below 50% – NAHB
• US housing supply gap widens further in 2025, Realtor.com says – Reuters
• Who we count shapes how we measure housing supply and affordability – Brookings

On other developments:    

• Is the Housing Market Going to Crash? – Redfin
• Homeowners Stay Put 12 Years, Stifling the US Housing Market – Bloomberg
• Senate bill to help Americans afford housing nears the finish line. The long-awaited bipartisan legislation has White House backing and includes a measure to ban large investors from buying hundreds of homes. – Washington Post
• Mamdani Meets Again With Trump, Emerging With Two Unexpected Victories. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he and President Trump discussed building housing in New York City, and he appeared to secure the release of a Columbia student detained by ICE on Thursday. – New York Times
• A new car, home feel out of reach for middle-class Americans, poll finds. Most renters — including those earning six figures — doubt they could afford a home in the foreseeable future. – Washington Post
• Q4 Update: Delinquencies, Foreclosures and REO – Calculated Risk
• Housing has a data problem – Brookings
• The ROAD to Letting Treasury Pick Winners and Losers in Investing – Cato
• The 5 Strongest States Leading the ‘Two-Speed’ Housing Market – Realtor.com 
• Affordability Posts Mild Gains in Second Half of 2025 but Crisis Continues – NAHB

On cross-country:

• BIS residential property price statistics, Q3 2025. In the third quarter of 2025, global real house prices fell by 0.7% year on year (yoy), a rate similar to the previous quarter (–0.8%); this was despite a rise in nominal prices (2%). Real house prices in AEs were almost stable (0.3% yoy), extending the recent period of moderate growth. In EMEs, prices continued to decrease, at a slower rate (–1.5%) compared with the previous quarters. – BIS

Working papers and conferences:

• Is Housing the Business Cycle (in 2026)? – Econbrowser
• Creating high-opportunity neighbourhoods: Evidence from the HOPE VI programme – VoxEU
• Mortgage borrower actions dampen the impact of higher rates on monthly payments – VoxEU
• A Unified Urban Model With Non-Homothetic Housing Demand – NBER
• Good Neighborhoods, Good Neighbors, Good Jobs? – NBER
• Strong Spatial Spillovers Determine Neighborhood Shape and Neighborhood Change – Philadelphia Fed
• Housing Has a Data Problem. The lack of basic tools to track and understand housing has resulted in a patchwork of individual programs and little clarity on whether any of them meet basic access and affordability needs. The promise of AI, which requires structured, standardized inputs, makes addressing this data-infrastructure gap more urgent. – Project Syndicate
• Episode 65. Property Rights and the UCLA School of Economics with David Henderson – Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century Podcast Episode

On Australia and New Zealand:

• [Australia] How to tackle Sydney’s housing crisis – Grattan Institute

On other countries:  

• [Korea] Seoul Apartment Prices Gain Further Ahead of BOK Meeting – Bloomberg
• [Netherlands] Centralised planning to increase housing supply – European Commission
• [Spain] Spain’s Housing Chaos Pits Squatters Against Stranded Owners. Tens of thousands of occupied homes are for sale as Spain’s housing market reaches a boiling point. – Bloomberg

On prices, rent, and mortgage:    

• Housing Doesn’t Need Higher Prices—It Needs More Homes – AEI
• A 25-Basis-Point Decline in the Mortgage Rate Prices-In 1.42 Million Households – NAHB
• Case-Shiller: National House Price Index Up 1.3% year-over-year in December. FHFA House Prices up 1.8% YoY in December – Calculated Risk

On sales, permits, starts, and supply:    

• The ripple effects of banning institutional purchases of single-family rentals – Brookings
• Warren urges Trump to press GOP on reining in Wall Street’s housing purchases. “If Trump wanted to make real changes that would lower costs for the American people, we can make that happen,” said the Massachusetts Democrat. – Politico
• Pending Home Sales Slip in January – Realtor.com
• White House Offers New Details on Its Push to Ban Housing Investors. Trump wants to prohibit investors that own more than 100 homes from buying more, potentially banning hundreds of investment firms – Wall Street Journal
• New Home Sales Close 2025 with Modest Gains – NAHB
• New-Home Sales Heat Up To End 2025, but Annual Total Falls Short of 2024 – Realtor.com
• On the Q4 Advance Release: GDP vs. “Core GDP” and Residential Investment – Econbrowser
• 1.600 million Total Housing Completions in 2025 including Manufactured Homes. Altos: Active single-family inventory was up 1.4% week-over-week – Calculated Risk
• High-End Construction Really Does Help Everyone. A new rung at the top of the housing ladder permits people lower down to climb up. – The Atlantic
• AEI State Housing Supply Legislative Update – AEI
• US single-family home price growth slows in December, FHFA says – Reuters
• Housing’s Share of GDP Declined Further at the End of 2025 – NAHB

On other developments:    

• Trump Vows To Make Housing Affordable While Keeping Values Up as He Praises the ‘Golden Age of America’ in State of the Union Speech – Realtor.com
• Trump administration moves to end housing assistance for mixed immigration families – Reuters
• It’s a Buyer’s Market, but Homeownership Eludes Many Americans. A growing split between low-to-middle-income families and wealthy households is changing who has access to homeownership now. – New York Times
• Four Years Into the High-Rate Era: How the Housing Market Changed and Why Prices Didn’t Reset – Realtor.com
• Beyond the State of the Union: Continuing a path to housing affordability – Zillow
• The Housing Market Is Tilting Back Toward Buyers. After years of bidding wars, there are now more sellers than buyers, forcing price cuts — even as high rates continue to narrow the entryway. – New York Times
• Colorado’s Distinct Trends in Affordable Housing Development. Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) are among the most common financing tools for the development of affordable housing units. Over the past 15 years, the development of LIHTC-funded housing units decelerated nationwide but accelerated in Colorado. – Kansas City Fed