This paper tests the effectiveness of vacant property registration ordinances (VPROs) in reducing negative externalities from foreclosures. VPROs were widely adopted by local governments across the United States during the foreclosure crisis and facilitated the monitoring and enforcement of...

We use state-level differences in the legal relationship between landlords and tenants to estimate the impact of these differences on housing markets. We construct a search-theoretic model of landlord and tenant search and matching, which predicts that an increase in the cost of eviction reduces...

Building on past research regarding the operating efficiency of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and recognizing the substantial changes in this industry since the turn of the millennium, we examine REIT efficiency over the period 2001–2015. Using both time-varying stochastic frontier and...

This paper employs machine learning to quantify the value of "soft" information contained in real estate property descriptions. Textual descriptions contain information that traditional hedonic attributes cannot capture. A one standard deviation increase in the uniqueness of a property based on...

We employ machine learning to develop measures of residential real estate uniqueness from written advertisements. These measures are exogenous from sales prices. We distinguish the effect of market uniqueness (compared to houses for sale at the same time) from the effect of universal uniqueness...

Since California voters approved Proposition 13 in 1978, fifteen states have enacted caps on the annual growth in assessed property values. These laws often impose a great burden on municipal finances and create horizontal inequity among homeowners. Why do voters choose to limit local government...

Millions of Americans have negative housing equity, meaning that the outstanding balance on their mortgage exceeds their home's current market value. Our data show that the overwhelming majority of these households will not lose their homes. Our finding is consistent with historical evidence: we...