type="main" <p>We document the presence of Markov switching regimes in expected returns, variances and the implied reward-to-risk ratio of real estate investment trust (REIT) returns and compare them to properties of stocks and bonds. Our evidence suggests that regime switching techniques are more...</p>

This paper compares housing price indices estimated using three models with several sets of property transaction data. The commonly used hedonic price model suffers from potential specification bias and inefficiency, while the weighted repeat-sales model presents potentially more serious bias...

We extend the literature on the impact of externalities using an approach based on a hybrid of hedonic and repeat-sales methods. The externality in question is groundwater contamination in Scottsdale, Arizona. The use of condominium sales allows us to assume that major physical characteristics...

This paper describes and evaluates the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) insurance demonstration, designed to encourage the development of private reverse mortgage programs by insuring lenders against the risks associated with new mortgage lending programs and with reverse mortgages in...

type="main" <p>We develop a micro-based macromodel for residential home prices in an economy where defaults on residential mortgages negatively affect housing prices. Our model enables us to study the impact of subprime defaults on prime borrowers and the impact of various government policies on...</p>

Commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) are complex asset-backed securities trading in markets that do not currently use derivatives pricing technology. This lack of usage is due to the complexity of the modeling exercise, and only the recent and costly availability of historical data. As...

Welfare gains to long-horizon investors may derive from time diversification that exploits nonzero intertemporal return correlations associated with predictable returns. Real estate may thus become more desirable if its returns are negatively serially correlated. While it could be important for...