nep-hre New Economics Papers
on Housing and Real Estate
Issue of 2026–04–06
five papers chosen by
Lyndsey Rolheiser, York University


  1. Does facilitating housing loans help support first-time home purchases? By Marie-Laure Barut-Etherington; Jean-Pierre Villetelle
  2. Rental Prices and the Cost of Living in the United States, 1914‐2006 By Ronan Lyons; Allison Shertzer; Rowena Gray
  3. Public housing transfers: longer-term impacts on investment, tenant experience and sector outcomes By Liu, Edgar; Aminpour, Fatemeh; Davies, Liam; Pawson, Hal; Sharam, Andrea
  4. Off the Beaten Tract: Constructing a New Neighborhood Geography Using Revealed Preference By Alaina Barca; Evan Mast
  5. Who burdens the welfare state? Migration and ageing in housing, education, and healthcare demand By Guillermo Prieto-Viertel; Carsten K\"allner; Elma Dervic; Ola Ali; Andrea Vismara; Rafael Prieto-Curiel

  1. By: Marie-Laure Barut-Etherington; Jean-Pierre Villetelle
    Abstract: Home purchase financing for all households can be facilitated through low interest rates and favourable lending conditions, or through tax measures that are independent of income. However, given an inelastic housing supply, the additional demand that is generated could lead to a risk of higher house prices with no significant effect on home-ownership. <p> Le financement de l’acquisition de logements peut être facilité pour l’ensemble des ménages par des taux d’intérêt bas et des conditions d’octroi favorables ou encore des mesures fiscales non conditionnées aux revenus. Mais face à une offre de logements inélastique, la demande supplémentaire qui va en découler présente le risque de se traduire par une augmentation des prix immobiliers, sans effet notable sur l’accession à la propriété.
    Date: 2026–03–23
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfr:econot:441
  2. By: Ronan Lyons (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin); Allison Shertzer (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia); Rowena Gray (UC Merced)
    Abstract: The Rent of Primary Residence (RoPR) series constructed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) implies that nominal rental prices increased by just 2.6% per year from 1914 to 2006 while overall prices grew by 3.3%. We show that this 'falling real rents' puzzle can be explained by the evolving treatment of shelter in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). In this paper we construct a new, methodologically consistent shelter price series using the Historical Housing Prices (HHP) Project rental index. We also construct a revised set of shelter weights going back to 1914 and combine them with the price series to create an alternate CPI that applies the owners' equivalent rent (OER) concept of shelter consistently across time. The HHP shelter price series increases by a factor of 28.4 (compared with the 10.7 increase in RoPR) and lifts average CPI growth from 3.3% to 3.6% per year. The revised series eliminates the long‐run decline in real rents in the CPI and provides a new benchmark for assessing trends in the cost of living and real income in the U.S. over the twentieth century.
    Keywords: Housing prices; rental indices; CPI; housing markets; cost of living
    JEL: E31 R3
    Date: 2026–03
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep0526
  3. By: Liu, Edgar; Aminpour, Fatemeh; Davies, Liam; Pawson, Hal; Sharam, Andrea
    Abstract: This project examines the long-term impacts of transferring public housing to community housing providers (CHPs) in Australia. It explores how large-scale property transfers have influenced CHP operations, finances, tenant services and outcomes, and identifies policies to support the goals of transfer programs. Public housing transfers have been a prominent government strategy for growing Australia’s community housing sector for decades. Transfer programs aim to improve economic efficiency, expand the community housing sector and enhance tenant outcomes. Recent changes to program scale, contract terms, resourcing and service delivery have resulted in divergent outcomes. Assessing the impacts of different programs informs more effective transfer strategies.
    Date: 2026–03–25
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:3av5c_v1
  4. By: Alaina Barca; Evan Mast
    Abstract: We construct a new neighborhood geography using a revealed preference intuition: If people disproportionately move within neighborhoods, their boundaries can be backed out from migration flows. Our “districts, ” which consist of about nine census tracts each, correspond to recognizable local areas, as their boundaries align with physical barriers, sharp demographic changes, and local government borders. To illustrate applications, we first show that tract-level analyses of neighborhood sorting miss important broader patterns. Second, aggregating tract-level intergenerational mobility estimates to the district level increases precision threefold while introducing little aggregation bias, resulting in improved predictive power in a hold-out sample.
    Keywords: Neighborhood definition; residential mobility; residential sorting
    JEL: R23
    Date: 2026–03–24
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:102934
  5. By: Guillermo Prieto-Viertel; Carsten K\"allner; Elma Dervic; Ola Ali; Andrea Vismara; Rafael Prieto-Curiel
    Abstract: Political discourse attributes the pressure on European welfare systems to foreign nationals. Yet projections of service demand rarely disaggregate service demand by citizenship status. We develop a structural demographic model and project healthcare, education, and housing demand in Austria through 2050, disaggregated by citizenship status and regions across migration scenarios. We find that migration, ageing, and fertility shape each sector differently. In healthcare, the ageing of Austrian nationals contributes 4.7 times more to demand growth than immigration, with the most acute pressures in rural, low-migration regions. In housing, migration accounts for the entire net growth in demand, concentrated in metropolitan hubs. In education, aggregate demand contracts regardless of migration assumptions, whereas future needs are driven more by the births of foreigners in Austria than by new arrivals. Foreign nationals consume services in proportion to their demographic weight, with deviations explained by age structure rather than over-utilisation. These results show that the drivers of service demand are sector-specific: migration restrictions could ease housing pressure, but would not address ageing-driven healthcare demand and may accelerate contraction in the education system.
    Date: 2026–03
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2603.26525

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