TY  - JOUR
AU  - Nieuwerburgh,Stijn Van
AU  - Weill,Pierre-Olivier
TI  - Why Has House Price Dispersion Gone Up?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12538
PY  - 2006
Y2  - September 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12538
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12538.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh
Stern School of Business
New York University
44 W 4th Street, Suite 9-120
New York, NY 10012
Tel: 646/284-4141
Fax: 646/284-4141
E-Mail: svnieuwe@stern.nyu.edu

Pierre-Olivier Weill
Department of Economics
University of California, Los Angeles
Bunche Hall 8283
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Tel: 310/794-6495
Fax: 310/825-9528
E-Mail: poweill@econ.ucla.edu
AB  - We investigate the 30 year increase in the level and dispersion of house prices across U.S. metropolitan areas in a calibrated dynamic general equilibrium island model. The model is based on two main assumptions: households flow in and out metropolitan areas in response to local wage shocks, and the housing supply cannot adjust instantly because of regulatory constraints. Feeding in our model the 30 year increase in cross-sectional wage dispersion that we document based on metropolitan-level data, we generate the observed increase in house price level and dispersion. In equilibrium, workers flow towards exceptionally productive metropolitan areas and drive house prices up. The calibration also reveals that, while a baseline level of regulation is important, a tightening of regulation by itself cannot account for the increase in house price level and dispersion: in equilibrium, workers flow out of tightly regulated towards less regulated metropolitan areas, undoing most of the price impact of additional local supply regulations. Finally, the calibration with increasing wage dispersion suggests that the welfare effects of housing supply regulation are large.
ER  -