Welcome to Stephen Malpezzi's special page containing a preview of A Primer on U.S. Housing Markets and Policy, which I've written with Richard Green, and which has just been published by the Urban Institute Press for the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.  As of 9/12/03 it has yet to hit Amazon or other booksellers, but you can order it directly from UI Press.

This page contains an outline, some of the data and tables (including more detailed tables than those available in the text!) and cool PowerPoint figures.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I: Introduction

Chapter II. The Market for Housing Services

1. Introduction
2. How Housing Markets Work
3. Some Facts About U.S. Housing Markets

A. Housing Demand
B. Housing Tenure: The Rise of Homeownership  Since World War II 12
C. Housing Supply
D. An Initial Look At Housing Prices: How to Measure and Interpret Them 26

4. Some Useful Housing Market Concepts

A. Property Rights
B. External Costs and Benefits of Housing
C. The Geographic Definition of a Housing Market
D. Stocks and Flows; Capitalization

5. Measuring Housing: The Price and Quantity of Housing Services

A. Measuring Price (and Hence Also Measuring Quantity)
B. Hedonic Indexes
C. Repeat Sales Price Indexes
D. Hybrid Indexes
E. User Cost

Appendix 2.1: Data Sources for Housing and the Economy

General References
Seasonality
Current Dollars vs. Constant Dollars
Measures of the Housing Stock
Other Measures of the Stock
Flow Measures of Housing Output
Other Market Conditions
Other Census Data Sources
Housing Prices
Financial Variables
Cost Indexes

Appendix 2.2: Some Simple International Comparisons

Chapter III. A Brief Review of Housing Policies and Programs

1. General Aspects of Housing Policy

A. Objectives of Housing Policy
B. Public and Private Roles in the Housing Market

2. Housing Policy Instruments

A. Property Rights
B. Housing Subsidies: Demand Side or Supply Side?
C Efficiency of Rental Housing Subsidies
E. Taxation of Housing
F. Housing Finance
G. Housing Regulation

3. Recent Trends in Federal Housing Policy

Appendix III.1: Measuring Consumer's Welfare

Example I: Rent Control
Example II: Public Housing

IV. Six Questions for the Next Decade

1. Is Housing Becoming less "Affordable?"

A. Trends in Tenure Choice

2. What Will Happen to Housing Prices?

3. How Does Regulation Affect the Housing Market?

A. Measuring Regulation
B. A Model of Housing Prices, Including Regulation and Externalities

4. What's Happening To the Bottom of the Rental Market?

Conclusion

5. Does the Housing Market Work For Minorities?

A. Are Housing Markets Segregated?
B. Is There Discrimination in the Housing Market?
C. Race and Housing Prices
D. Race, Demand and Tenure Choice
E. Race, Housing and the Labor Market
F. Race and Housing Finance
Final Comment

6. Is Homelessness A Housing Problem?

V. Conclusions

1. Policies and Programs Evaluated in Light of the Facts
2. What Kind of Housing Policies in the Future?

References

Tables

Click here to download tables from the Primer. Contains some data omitted from the printed version for lack of space.

Figures

Click below to see PowerPoint generated figures from:

Chapter 2, The Market for Housing Services
Chapter 3, A Brief Review of Housing Policies and Programs
Chapter 4, Six Questions for the Next Decade

While you're here, check out our page on Housing, Real Estate, and Urban Development Indicators. This page contains some papers and data on Indicators and related topics.