Does installing solar panels raise the resale value of a home? In a recent Ziman Center Working Paper, Sam Dastrup, Josh Graff-Zivin and Dora Costa and I have studied the resale price of single family homes in San Diego and Sacramento. For a large sample of residential homes, we collected info...

To understand what is happening in Turkey’s murky world of judicial politics these days, it helps to imagine you are watching the closing scenes of a Hollywood courtroom drama. The movie’s protagonist stands accused of attempted murder. The prosecutor has produced a set of elaborate plans that t...

Forget mortgage backed securities, the WSJ reports that a new product is bundles of rental streams from real estate and in particular real estate that was owner occupied single family housing but now is a rental unit. This article interests me because I've been thinking about buying some real ...

This NY Times article clearly states that Venice Beach will be receiving a "make over". While the current residents of Venice Beach prefer its "charm" to Santa Monica, I want it to look and feel more like Santa Monica! The article quotes Arnold S. at length and he seems to have mixed feelings...

In 2008, I sought to purchase a Los Angeles home. Home builders quoted me prices of $350 per square foot for the construction cost of building a new home on any land that I acquired. At the time, it crossed my mind whether a prefab home would offer a suitable alternative. This article offer...

The NY Times celebrates that you can live well in downtown San Fran. The article does not discuss the challenges that developers face in building high rise buildings in this part of this beautiful city but the market prices indicate high demand!

Two Stanford University economists have released a new NBER Working Paper titled; "The Hated Property Tax: Salience, Tax Rates and Tax Revolts". Here is the paper's abstract: Because of the manner in which it is normally paid, the property tax is almost certainly the most salient major tax in ...

I leave for Central Europe soon so I have been eager to learn about real estate prices in Budapest. For some specific price quotes look at this webpage. Switching subjects. For those who are interested in some summer reading related to local real estate markets. I suggest that you read Enrico ...

Michael Alpert is interviewed by the NY Times in this piece about his real estate investment strategy. Here is one good quote; " Q. Tell me about the company’s investment strategy. A. We’re looking for urban infill properties that are well located — so major markets. We look for long-term upsid...