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Wharton News Sinai on Housing PricesTodd Sinai, associate professor of real estate, was featured in an article, "Bubble Won't Burst: Study Finds Bay Area Housing Prices in Line with Economic Growth," about his research on housing prices. He was interviewed on CNBC September 19, about his research on home prices as well as the impact of Hurricane Katrina on housing markets. He co-authored an article about housing prices in the United States that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on September 19. In the Hindu Business Line of September 29, 2005 he was quoted in an article about the development of application software. The Associated Press cited him in a September 19 article about the homebuilding industry.Real Estate Student Wins SIOR Scholarship Scholarship winner Dan Kline, second from right Saiz Says Las Vegas Has Almost EverythingAssistant professor of real estate Albert Saiz was quoted in a Las Vegas Sun article (10/11/05) "We don't need no education: Las Vegas defies national trend for graduation, job growth." Although Las Vegas ranks among the cities with the lowest percentage of college graduates, with just 18 percent, it ranks among the highest in the country for job growth, primarily due to lack of housing supply restrictions. Saiz noted there are four main propellants of growth: education, amenities, geography, and immigrants. And while Las Vegas is not an education center, its location is attractive, it has amenities such as nice weather and relatively low pollution, and it is attracting more and more immigrants.Poindexter Takes on Kelo vs. New LondonAn article in the Fall 2005 issue of Wharton Alumni Magazine, "Property Rights and Wrongs," by Ritu Kalra, features Georgette Poindexter, Chairperson of Wharton's Real Estate Department. Poindexter explains "the colliding shades of public and private use when it comes to eminent domain." "Land," she says, "has almost a religious attachment for many Americans." Her view is that "the sanctity of the individual cannot exist in isolation from the needs of the community."Gyourko, Sinai and Wachter Cited in New York Times MagazineThe New York Times Magazine article, "Chasing Ground" (October 16, 2005), cited a paper by Joseph Gyourko and Edward Glaeser at Harvard University, "who used sample prices from 25 areas to show that the cost of housing in a metropolitan area appears to be in direct correlation to its degree of zoning ordinances." The article also referred to a recent paper by Gyourko and Todd Sinai and Chris Mayer that "calls attention to the pricing patterns in what they call 'superstar cities.' In metro areas like New York and San Francisco, dynamic and attractive places with limited supplies of land, prices can conceivably go up at above-average rates for a very long time," until even the rich feel the need to move on to a less expensive location.Wharton housing economist Professor Susan Wachter told the reporter, "The fundamentals of supply and demand have shifted in the U.S." She said, "the widespread adoption of controls on growth and building . . . have pushed up prices in so many regions that it is increasingly difficult for one desirable city to relieve the pressure in another." She continued, "The fact of the matter is that housing prices are increasing in the U.S., faster than inflation, in ways we haven't seen before. Ten years running. It's the first time in keeping these numbers that we've ever had a run like that." Professor Gyourko also had his article "The Problem and Opportunity in Land Use and Building Restrictions," printed in AMC Delancey's newsletter. Is Homeownership a Social Good?Joseph Gyourko was quoted in a New York Times article (11/13) on the merits of the mortgage interest deduction and the social value of homeownership. "Theory suggests there are social benefits to homeownership, but we don't know whether they are large enough to justify the size of the subsidy," said Gyourko. "My gut feeling is that we are oversubsidizing."Curbing Building Cuts Housing PricesBloomberg.com (11/14) quoted a paper by Joseph Gyourko, Ed Glaeser and Raven Saks. The paper, "Why Have Housing Prices Gone Up?" examined housing prices in Boston, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. If housing supply is restricted through zoning and residential development is discouraged there is no safety valve to relieve upward price pressure. "Man-made scarcity," the authors concluded, "led to price inflation."Rybczynski Dines with RoyalsProfessor Witold Rybczynski was a guest at the White House dinner on November 2, 2005, welcoming HRH Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. The European Council of Interior Architects invited Professor Rybczynski to lecture in Malmo, Sweden. He also lectured in Amsterdam to the Dutch Interior Architects Institute. The subject of both lectures was "Style, Taste, and the Modern Interior." He also spoke in Chicago as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival, and was invited to lecture by the Indianapolis Museum of Art.Regional Planning In SeattleJanet R. Pack, professor of business and public policy and real estate, was quoted in a Seattle Times article ("Plenty of work to do in plan for regional economy," by Drew DeSilver, September 27, 2005) about developmental plans for Seattle's regional economy. Pack, who has extensively studied urban and regional economic development, challenged a regional strategic plan that concluded that the four-county Seattle region could work as a single, integrated economic area for development, largely determining their economic future. "There's not much more in this than 'we're all in this together' and 'we all have to pull together,'" she said. "But I'm not sure 'we're all in it together' when you're talking about 82 cities. I can see them fighting over almost every one of these [action] items," Pack said. In addition, she said, most communities that have consciously tried to attract or build specific industries have little to show for their efforts. "It's not clear that there is much local government can do to make [clustering] happen, other than things like having a good school system and not having a tax system that drives people away."
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