We document a novel transmission channel of monetary policy through the homeowners insurance market. On average, contractionary monetary policy shocks result in higher homeowners insurance prices. Using granular data on insurers' balance sheets, we show that this effect is driven by the...

Der vorliegende IW-Wohnindex untersucht die Entwicklung der Kauf- und Mietpreise für Wohnimmobilien in Deutschland. Der vierteljährig erscheinende Kurzreport präsentiert die Ergebnisse eines hedonischen Preisindex auf der Basis von mehreren Millionen Wohnimmobilieninseraten. Betrachtet werden...

This paper examines the relationship between location, liquidity, and prices in housing markets. We construct spatial datasets for German and U.S. cities and show that liquidity and prices decline with distance to the city center. To rationalize these results, we build a structural model with...

Over the past 150 years, living space consumption has increased significantly-in Germany from less than half a room to almost two rooms per capita. The average living space per person more than doubled between 1956 and 2024, reaching 49.2 square meters. Rising incomes enabled the construction of...