United States Selected Issues

This Selected Issues paper summarizes estimates of the gap between current housing prices and their equilibrium levels in the United States. It examines short-term dynamics of price adjustment. Reflecting uncertainties about how to analyze underlying housing price trends, two approaches are used in...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Corporate Author: International Monetary Fund
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C. International Monetary Fund 2008
Series:IMF Staff Country Reports
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: International Monetary Fund - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
Description
Summary:This Selected Issues paper summarizes estimates of the gap between current housing prices and their equilibrium levels in the United States. It examines short-term dynamics of price adjustment. Reflecting uncertainties about how to analyze underlying housing price trends, two approaches are used in the paper to estimate the extent of housing-price overvaluation. Both techniques yield similar results, revealing considerable overvaluation in the last few years, which has not been fully corrected yet. The gap between actual and equilibrium housing prices seems to matter only through its medium-term impact on the inventory-to-sales ratio
Physical Description:21 pages
ISBN:9781451839722