This article examines various methods for determining residential real estate’s “fair” price and argues for a mean pricing model when establishing the value of a parcel of real estate.

As the homeownership rate declines unabated by one percentage point annually, and interest rates remain at essentially zero, the federal and state governments are collecting more tax revenue since fewer taxpayers qualify for the mortgage interest tax deduction (MID). They are becoming renters during this Lesser Depression. Individual federal income tax returns filed in 2009 [...]

This article examines the arguments for protecting the mortgage interest tax deduction (MID), reveals who truly benefits from the subsidy and questions both its viability and actual use as a marketing tool by real estate brokers and agents.

A residential real estate developer sought to construct four dwellings on a parcel zoned by the city to allow six dwellings per acre, known as a residential low density zone. Local citizens protested the development, calling for rezoning of the parcel citing a recent landslide in the area as a reason. Without conducting a study [...]

This article reviews the urban density debate and argues the relaxation of local zoning restrictions on city center density will create jobs and stabilize housing prices in California’s urban core.

This article critiques the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s decision not to recommend principal reductions for negative equity mortgages held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

This article examines the myriad causes and consequences of the current sticky pricingA seller's irrational reliance on past home pricing as a basis for setting current pricing situation in this Lesser Depression.

People will begin buying homes again if the federal government protects their down payment from risk of loss, according to University of California economist, James A. Wilcox. Wilcox claims that there is a vast nationwide demand for so-called “buyer’s side mortgage insurance” among potential homebuyers who refuse to pull the trigger out of fear that [...]

This article warns of the impending era of due-on-sale enforcement that will befall the real estate market in the approaching age of rising interest rates.

As the income chasm widens between the top 1% of earners in the U.S. and everyone else, social mobility likewise continues to decline, according to the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Alan Krueger. Krueger points to a number of indicators that income inequality is indeed present in the U.S. and that it is [...]