Distributional costs of the housing-price bust

Cynthia Bansa and Martha Starr

No 2011-04, Working Papers from American University, Department of Economics

Abstract: In considering whether asset-price bubbles should be offset through policy, an important issue is who pays the price when the bubble bursts. A bust that reduces the wealth of well-off households only may have small welfare costs, but costs may be sizable if broad swaths of households are affected. This paper uses micro data from the American Community Survey to examine how the recent housing bust affected households' employment, homeownership, home values, and housing costs. To separate dynamics of the housing bust from those of the aggregate downturn, we differentiate between metropolitan areas that did and did not experience bubbles. We find that, for most measures, deteriorations in well-being were more severe in bubble metros than elsewhere, and for several measures, differential effects on less-educated households were also more severe. This underscores the importance of keeping housing markets from overheating, as burdens of adjustment fall differentially on people not well prepared to bear them.

Keywords: JEL classification: R21; D31; D12; E32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hme and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://doi.org/10.17606/dqeh-wk63 First version, 2011 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:amu:wpaper:2011-04

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