Housing MktsSoc Infrastructur

1.5 Credits · Level: Graduate

This course aims to provide students with a solid foundation for understanding the economics of housing markets, assessing their risks, and identifying the social implications of housing markets and their financing, i.e. the “S” of the ESG implications of real estate. The course will cover topics in the economics and finance of housing markets, including understanding the rent-own decision. the financing of homeownership (mortgages), the supply side of housing, and the dynamics of housing cycles and residential real-estate price volatility. For each topic, after covering the basics the class will add a focus on social implications, including the role of underrepresented demographic characteristics in the rent- own decision, the debate on the limitations to access to capital and discrimination in mortgage financing, the pros and cons of the supply of social housing, and the unequal effects of housing cycles across the wealth distribution. The social focus components of each lecture are based on cutting-edge academic research in housing markets produced by the Steer Center’s Clark Chair in Global Real Estate and other scholars. Social focuses will discuss the unequal effects of regulating mortgage supply in the US, the positive and negative consequences and effects of supply-side real estate investment programs (e.g., Opportunity Zones), and the unequal effects of inflation on access to homeownership by US households.