Inefficiencies in the Real Estate Market

The economic literature suggests that institutional
characteristics of the real estate market produce
inefficiencies that contribute to price volatility.
However, no study has attempted to test the relative
contribution of the competing hypotheses to
inefficiency in regional real estate markets, and
their implications for price dynamics. This book,
based on my Ph.D. dissertation, identifies
volatility in housing prices by testing for market
inefficiency, quantifies those characteristics of
local real estate markets which contribute to price
volatility, and tests a model for the US housing
market which incorporates local market
characteristics and speculative behavior. The
results show that prices in U.S. real estate markets
have been volatile, and suggests that price bubbles
have been present in a number of US cities from the
mid-1980s through 2000.

Autorentext

Peter Kunzel is senior economist at the International Monetary Fund providing advice to governments on sovereign asset and liability management. He has previously worked at private and public sector financial institutions in the US and Europe and holds a Ph.D. in economics from the George Washington University.

Klappentext

The economic literature suggests that institutional characteristics of the real estate market produce inefficiencies that contribute to price volatility. However, no study has attempted to test the relative contribution of the competing hypotheses to inefficiency in regional real estate markets, and their implications for price dynamics. This book, based on my Ph.D. dissertation, identifies volatility in housing prices by testing for market inefficiency, quantifies those characteristics of local real estate markets which contribute to price volatility, and tests a model for the US housing market which incorporates local market characteristics and speculative behavior. The results show that prices in U.S. real estate markets have been volatile, and suggests that price bubbles have been present in a number of US cities from the mid-1980s through 2000.