Referred Articles
Mortgage Risk Premiums during the Housing Bubble, co-authors Adam J. Levitin and Desen Lin, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, forthcoming.
Endowments and Minority Homeownership, co-authors Arthur Acolin and Desen Lin, Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research, Vol. 21, No. 1, March 2019, 5-62.
Real Estate and the Great Crisis: Lessons for Macro-Prudential Policy, co-authors John V. Duca and Lilit Popoyan, Contemporary Economic Policy, Vol. 37, No. 1, January 2019, 121-137.
Credit Risk, Informed Markets, and Securitization, Economic Policy Review, Vol. 24, No. 3, December 2018, 117-137.
Real Estate Economics, forthcoming.
The impact of stock market index membership on REIT stock returns is unclear. Returns may become more like those of other indexed stocks and less like those of their underlying properties. Taking advantage of the inclusion of REITs in major S&P indexes starting in 2001, we find that shared index membership significantly increases the correlation between REIT returns. However, index membership also enhances the link between REIT returns and the underlying real estate, consistent with improved pricing efficiency.
Housing Policy Debate, 2017, 27 (3), June 2017, 393-418
This article documents the growth and geographic distribution of nontraditional mortgages (NTMs) and subprime mortgages during 2000-2006, and examines the association between these products and homeownership at the county level between 2000 and 2012. It finds a significant relationship between the origination of NTM and subprime mortgages during the boom and changes in the number of homeowners (positive during the 2000-2006 period and negative during the 2006-2012 period) but no significant relationship with the change in the homeownership rate. Looking at specific categories of the population, the results indicate a positive relationship between the presence of NTMs and subprime mortgages and increased numbers of homeowners for young households as well as for low income and minority households, but the relationship is smaller than for the general population. Overall, the relationship between NTMs and homeownership is stronger than the relationship between subprime mortgages and homeownership during the boom and it is less negative during the bust.
Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research, 19 (1), Spring 2017,135-150
This article examines the relationship between employment opportunity and housing affordability. Access to locations with high-productivity jobs is increasingly limited by regional housing affordability barriers. Recent articles demonstrate a new regional divergence in access to high-productivity regions accompanied by declines in worker mobility associated with affordability barriers. We update these findings and discuss their long-term implications for economic opportunity and intergenerational welfare. We show that areas, from which lower-income households are increasingly priced out, are also more likely to have higher levels of intergenerational mobility. Access to opportunity also continues to be challenged within metropolitan areas as the gentrification of downtown neighborhoods is accompanied by an increase in concentrated poverty in outlying city neighborhoods and inner ring suburbs. These trends on regional and local scales derive from the increased importance of place in the knowledge-based economy and interact to reinforce growing spatial inequality. We conclude with a discussion of the importance of identifying place-based solutions to counter growing spatial inequality of opportunity.
Oxford Economic Papers, Vol. 68, Issue 3, July 2016. 665-687.
Journal of Financial Services Research, Vol.49, Issue 2, June 2016, 265-280.
American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, Vol. 106, No. 5, May 2016, 625- 629.
Journal of Economics and Business, March 2016, 148-161.
Cityscape, Vol. 18, No. 2, Winter 2016, 145-158.