Thirty Years of Housing Research

Housing is a unique research area for a variety of reasons. From an economic perspective, housing is distinctive in its ability to serve as both an investment and a consumption good. Housing is important across the globe to every person because it meets the basic need for shelter. In addition, housing intersects with so many other research areas, from finance to public policy and construction to agency theory. The Journal of Housing Research, therefore, has been able to publish a wide variety of impactful research articles over the past thirty years that all have one thing in common—housing.

The relationship between Fannie Mae and the Journal of Housing Research has generated an important literature on mortgage markets. This has included research by Kau and Keenan (1995) on the option-theoretic pricing of mortgages, which, at the time of writing, has 370 Google Scholar citations.¹ The journal has also published research by LaCour-Little (2000) on the evolving role of technology in the mortgage finance industry, Fratantoni (1999) on reverse mortgages, Pennington-Cross (2002) on subprime lending, and Straka (2000) on the move to automated credit evaluations in the mortgage lending market. Several published articles also addressed the topic of mortgage default—including Elmer and Seelig’s (1999) article discussing how insolvency, trigger events, and consumer risk influence residential mortgage default decisions.

Research published in the Journal of Housing Research has also contributed to an understanding of the problems surrounding discrimination in mortgage lending and housing markets. Hillier (2003) used spatial analysis to examine problems of historic redlining in mortgage lending. Ross (1997) used simulation models to address the issue of discrimination in mortgage lending and racial differences in default rates. Ondrich, Ross, and Yinger (2001) more broadly addressed the topic of geography and housing discrimination. Galster and Carr (1991) specifically studied housing discrimination and urban poverty among African-Americans while Harkness and Newman (2003) studied the differential effects of homeownership on children in high and low-income families. Furthermore, Gyourko and Linneman (1997) tackled the issue of the changing influences of race, education, income, and family structure on homeownership over time. Over the years, the journal has been a source for research addressing issue of discrimination in housing markets and providing knowledge to influence public policy.

Fannie Mae’s influence on the Journal of Housing Research has also extended beyond simply residential mortgage research. Throughout the 1990s and again in 2020, Fannie Mae established special themed issues of the journal based on topics of particular research interest at the time. These topics included flood risk (2020), mortgage-basked securities (1995), international housing markets (1992 and 1994), home price indices (1995 and 1996), and disparities in mortgage lending markets (1993). Some of these special issues produced research that proved to be timely and important to academics and practitioners around the world. The 1998 special issue was dedicated to GIS and advances in spatial technology. This issue produced highly cited work by Anselin (1998) on GIS research infrastructure for real estate markets, Thrall (1998) on GIS applications for real estate and related industries, and Can (1998) on the use of GIS and spatial technologies in housing and mortgage markets.

While the majority of research published in the Journal of Housing Research has used U.S. data and studied U.S. housing markets, international housing markets have not been excluded from the publication and have become a more important component in the journal over the years. One of the first international articles by Peng and Wheaton (1994) addressed the effects of restrictive land supply on leasing in Hong Kong. To date, this article has 260 Google Scholar citations. More recent international articles include Lee and Reed’s (2014) volatility decomposition of Australian housing prices and Andersson and Soderberg’s (2012) study of the elimination of rent controls in the Swedish rental housing market.

Another important research theme in the journal has been real estate cycles and home price dynamics at the macro level. Chinloy (1996) explored the theory and evidence of real estate cycles while Cho (1996) examined the theory and empirical evidence behind home price dynamics. Malpezzi’s (1996) research article on house prices, externalities, and regulation in U.S. metro areas currently has 497 Google Scholar citations, which is the most of any article published in the Journal of Housing Research at this time.

More recent research published in the journal has also helped to develop the literature on hedonic pricing models and home price dynamics at the micro level. Turnbull and Zahirovic-Herbert (2019) considered housing market microstructure and the definition of a competing house. Sirmans, MacDonald, and Macpherson (2010) analyzed the determinants of time-on-market and their connection with selling price in hedonic pricing models. Johnson, Benefield, and Wiley (2007) introduced the use of unsold property data to model the probability of sale. This metric is now included along with hedonic models of price and time-on-market in many papers, and the paper currently has 53 Google Scholar citations.

One area of research that has often neglected by other journals is the impact of real estate brokers on the housing market. The Journal of Housing Research has been an important outlet for this branch of research. Wiley and Zumpano (2004) looked at the ineffectiveness of mandatory agency disclosure statutes. Waller and Jubran (2012) found evidence that agent experience does matter and show that experienced agents get higher sales prices. Arndt et al (2017) employed behavioral research techniques to discover whether buyers are drawn to particular real estate agents based on characteristics such as age, race, gender, and attractiveness. Real estate agents also influence buyers through the content of the listing down to the pictures and words. Goodwin, Waller, and Weeks (2014) established a stream of literature considering the perceived meaning and connotation of individual words in a listing and the transactional impact of language.

It is hard to know what the next thirty years of housing research will bring. Undoubtedly, there will be issues that involve technology, affordability, and public policy that impact households around the world. The Journal of Housing Research will continue to publish research at the intersection of urban economics, finance, public policy, mortgage lending, macroeconomics, microeconomic, price dynamics and cycles, brokerage and agency, and technology—all areas to which housing markets are highly relevant.

Kimberly R. Goodwin Editor, Journal of Housing Research Publications Director, American Real Estate Society

Notes

1 All references to Google Scholar citation counts were taken from scholar.google.com, accessed July, 2021.