The Unassuming Economist

On cross-country:

• Some Economics of Place Effects – Conversable Economist
• A Convenient Representation of the Wealth Distribution and More Evidence on Homeownership and Wealth Inequality in Euro Area Countries – IZA

On the US:   

• Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac to Back Home Loans of Nearly $1 Million. The maximum size of home-mortgage loans eligible for government backing will jump to $970,800 next year in high-cost markets – Wall Street Journal
• US lifts upper limit on government-backed home mortgages to almost $1m. Value of mortgages for purchase by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rises 18% after ‘exceptionally fast’ price increase – FT
• Supply-Chain Woes Snarl Attempts to Tame House Prices.Rising costs of construction materials, labor shortages complicate efforts to cool some of the world’s hottest property markets – Wall Street Journal
• The Housing Gang Is Getting Back Together for Another Bust. Fan and Fred will buy mortgages up to $1 million, repeating the mistakes that led to the 2008 crash. – Wall Street Journal
• Renters strike back as cities cap price hikes by landlords.The revival of rent control policies long derided by economists, including one of President Joe Biden’s top advisers, comes as officials scramble to contain rising prices across a range of goods and services. – Politico
• Racial Discrimination and Housing Outcomes in the United States Rental Market – NBER
• Have More People Moved During the Pandemic? – Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies
• An Economy That Works for All: Fostering Low-Income Homeownership – New York Fed
• Individual and Local Effects of Unemployment on Mortgage Defaults – Philadelphia Fed
• Austin’s Texas-Size Luxury Housing Boom. The capital city has one of the hottest high-end real-estate markets in the country, with entry-level list prices for the top 5% of the market hitting $2.34 million in 2021, a rise of nearly 33% over 2020 prices – Wall Street Journal
• Individual and Local Effects of Unemployment on Mortgage Defaults – Philadelphia Fed

On China

• China Home Sales Slump Deepens as Easing Shows Little Effect – Bloomberg
• China Evergrande’s electric-vehicle unit gets US$200 million from returning undeveloped land.The Hong Kong-listed carmaker says the money will be used to fund construction projects and pay wages. Its cash-strapped parent, China Evergrande, is hoping to transform its business focus from property development to car manufacturing – South China Morning Post
• China property bond fears remain as house prices fall. Evergrande’s missed payments have led to a reckoning across the country’s real estate industry – FT
• Even in tech hub Shenzhen, China’s property market succumbs to chills – Reuters

On other countries:  

• [Canada] Want to solve the housing crisis? Address super-charged demand – The Conversation  
• [Czech Republic] Czech central bank gets tougher in mortgage lending rules amid property boom – Reuters
• [Germany] German banks vulnerable to housing bubble; should build buffers: Bundesbank – Reuters
• [Germany] Price rises in German housing market to ease but affordability worsen – Reuters
• [Hong Kong] Hong Kong home prices ease for 2nd month after record high – Reuters
• [Ireland] Irish house prices undervalued? Shows how misleading stats can be. European Commission report saying houses undervalued relies on outmoded statistics – The Irish Times
• [United Kingdom] Surge in stamp duty refunds on second-home surcharge. Property stock levels decline during the pandemic, say agents – FT
• [United Kingdom] The big picture: the decline and fall of a utopian social housing scheme – The Guardian
• [United Kingdom] London Housing Market Poised to Lag Behind U.K. Regions in 2022 – Bloomberg

From the IMF’s latest report on Mongolia:

From New Geography:

“The Urban Reform Institute has published the 2021 edition of Demographia United States Housing Affordability, which rates middle-income housing affordability in the third quarter 2020. Demographia United States Housing Affordability is a supplement to Demographia International Housing Affordability, which covers 92 major housing markets (1,000,000 or more population) in 8 nations (Australia, Canada, China [Hong Kong only], Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States). The Demographia United States Housing Affordability provides ratings in 188 markets, including the 56 major metropolitan areas included in the earlier report.

Over the past year, housing affordability has deteriorated. Urban Reform Institute President Charles Blain noted: “It is not surprising that housing affordability — given the large influx of new buyers, particularly in suburban and outlying areas — has continued to deteriorate. As a result, many low-income and middle-income households who already have suffered the worst consequences from housing inflation will see their standards of living further decline.”

Rating Housing Affordability (The Median Multiple)

Demographia rates middle-income housing affordability in four categories, ranging from the most affordable (“affordable”) to the least affordable (“severely unaffordable”), as is indicated in Figure 1. As late as the 1990s price-to-income ratios were at or below 3.0 in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, in markets rated “affordable. Since then, there has been a substantial divergence in affordability between major markets, which research has associated with stronger land use regulation (especially urban containment). The range between least affordable and most affordable markets rose by more than four times from 1969 to 2020 (Figure 2).”

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On cross-country:

• Hostility towards private equity’s push into property is misguided. Big investors are filling a gap in the market – The Economist

On the US:   

• How Jerome Powell as Fed Chair Will Affect Crypto, Hot Housing and Inflation. Wall Street loves Powell for helping lift the stock market up from its pandemic lows. But will he continue to keep rates low and credit cheap? – Bloomberg
• Mortgage Bills Are Coming Again. $10 Billion in Aid May Arrive First. The federal Homeowner Assistance Fund aims to help those still struggling as forbearance periods come to an end. But the assistance isn’t limited to mortgage payments. – New York Times
• A record number of US homes are being built just for renters – Quartz
• Some Eviction Economics – Conversable Economist
• Home Prices Are Surging. The Manufactured-Housing Industry Sees an Opening. Some lenders and advocates think factory-built homes are a solution to the U.S. housing crunch – Wall Street Journal
• The Housing Proposal That’s Quietly Tearing Apart Atlanta. Secession efforts by Buckhead residents are gaining momentum as the city proposes zoning changes to create more apartments and affordable housing. – Bloomberg
• New York Targets Affluent Neighborhoods in Push for Affordable Housing. Supporters say the plans help address New York’s housing crisis and help integrate the city’s neighborhoods. Opponents see more gentrification and giveaways for developers. – New York Times
• Housing Is Cruising For A Bust, But Not Just Yet – Forbes  
• The destabilizing cost of a pandemic: What COVID-19 meant for renters already getting assistance – Brookings
• Mortgage Burnout Looms for Lenders. Mortgage originators are likely to feel a hangover from the pandemic boom, so they need some new tricks – Wall Street Journal
• Five things to know about rising house prices. Benjamin Keys, a professor of real estate and finance at the Wharton School, gives his five main takeaways from the recent increase in house prices. – Penn Today

On China

• China eases pressure on property sector but reform remains priority. Beijing’s policy loosening to prevent collapse of industry does not represent a retreat, analysts say – FT
• China’s Economy Czar Liu He Calls For Stable Housing Market – Bloomberg
• Will China’s property tax rob from the rich and give to the poor, aiding common prosperity drive? China’s property tax plan is part of Xi Jinping’s so-called common prosperity campaign to redistribute wealth and to address widening social inequality. The plan will not be implemented straight away, with a five year pilot programme set to test the proposal before it is eventually rolled out across the country – South China Morning Post

On other countries:  

• [Albania] A Denser City, But at What Cost? Albania’s capital is getting a makeover intended to stop urban sprawl. But critics say the plan could leave Tirana changed beyond recognition, and erase its history. – Bloomberg
• [Australia] ‘Twilight’ for Australia’s housing boom as prices to fall 10% in 2023, CBA says. Commonwealth Bank expects a peak in 2022 and then a drop the following year as borrowing costs rise – The Guardian
• [Australia] Who is responsible for housing affordability? – ABC
• [Austria] Austrian central bank sees growing risks from mortgages amid property boom – Reuters
• [Canada] Financial stability through the pandemic and beyond – Bank of Canada
• [Colombia] Striking a Balance. Toward a Comprehensive Housing Policy for a Post-COVID Colombia – World Bank
• [Hong Kong] Hong Kong conundrum: sky-high prices and flats the size of parking spaces. Ranked the world’s least affordable housing market, the cramped city suffers from a lack of supply – FT
• [New Zealand] New Zealand raises rates to 0.75% as house prices surge. Rates will have to rise above their neutral level to cool the economy, says central bank – FT
• [New Zealand] RBNZ outlines new home loan restrictions – Financial Review
• [Nigeria] Empty houses litter Nigeria’s cities despite housing crisis – Reuters
• [United Kingdom] Nationwide’s profits almost triple as mortgage borrowing stays high. UK building society reports strong demand despite expected BoE interest rate rises – FT
• [United Kingdom] Revealed: first-time homes have grown less affordable under the Tories. Guardian analysis shows situation has worsened in most of England and Wales since 2015 – The Guardian

From a post by Conversable Economist:

“Part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the CARES Act) signed into law by President Trump on March 27, 2020, was a national moratorium on evictions. However, the moratorium was scheduled to end on July 24, 2020–although it effectively required an additional 30 days beyond that date before landlords could file notices to vacate. Congress did not vote to extend the moratorium. However, the Centers for Disease Control then announced a national eviction moratorium to start on September 4, 2020. The US Supreme Court held in August 2021 that the CDC lacked the power to make this policy decision without the passage of a law through Congress and signed by the president. Of course, the Supreme Court decision was not about whether the eviction moratoriums were good policy or had beneficial effects. Here, I set aside the legal questions and focus on what we know about the outcomes.

It’s worth saying at the start that data on rental evictions is not nationally centralized, and is not up-to-the-minute. Every study has its own sample. However, certain patterns do seem to emerge across studies. Jasmine Rangel, Jacob Haas, Emily Lemmerman, Joe Fish, and Peter Hepburn at The Eviction Lab at Princeton University provide evidence on overall eviction patterns in “Preliminary Analysis: 11 months of the CDC Moratorium” (August 21, 2021). Their project collects data from 31 cities and six full states, representing about one-fourth of all the renters in the country. Here’s their estimate based on the sites they trask of how the total number of evictions would have evolved starting in January 2020, compared to what actually happened. Evictions fall by about half starting in March 2020 , and the gap between expected and actual evictions continues to expand after the CDC moratorium is enacted in September 2020.”

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