This chapter examines certain of the developments in the application of economic theory and in empirical and policy analysis with respect to housing markets in general and urban housing markets in particular. The majority of the material refers to US and UK experience with some English language...

We review the main studies on house price synchronization and conduct an empirical analysis using OECD house price indices. We provide a discussion of the contributing factors of synchronization, with a focus on the demand and supply dimensions. Synchronization across both countries and cities...

Purpose - We propose an economic model of housing markets. The model incorporates the macroeconomic relationships between prices, demand and supply. Since vacancy rates are not observable, the demand-supply mismatches are identified using a microeconomic model of search, matching and price...

This paper analyses the default option typical to American mortgages. Households borrow to buy durable housing, but future house prices are uncertain, and households find it dvantageous to default on their debt if house prices fall sufficiently. A key assumption of the model is that households...

We solve an optimal land sale problem for a mayor who sells public land and uses the land sale revenue to finance infrastructure. Over an infinite horizon the mayor chooses land sale and infrastructure in each period to maximize the market value of the city net of the spending on infrastructure....