The housing and mortgage markets have played an unprecedented role in the U.S. economy recovery from the recession of 2003. That the strong housing and mortgage markets cushioned the severity of the economy’s difficulties and played such an important role in the recovery is without precedent. The counter-cyclical behavior of housing markets is due to a number of unique factors. Chief among these is the maturation of the housing finance system, which has integrated the nation’s housing and mortgage markets with global capital markets through the large and rapidly growing mortgage backed securities market. In all likelihood, while housing and mortgage markets will not play an identical counter-cyclical role in future business cycles, they will no longer perform the damaging pro-cyclical role they have in the past. This article shows how the housing finance system in its current form has been the key to the powerful positive effect that housing and mortgage markets have had on the overall economy.
1010 Affordable Housing Architecture Asia Australia bonds Borrowing Constraints California Canada China coastal markets cold storage Colombia Commercial Brokerage Commercial Real Estate commissions Congestion consumer bias covid-19 CRE credit card market Credit Default Swaps Credit Insurance Credit Risk Transfers Culture data centers Debt Market Demand Demographics Density Development Discrete Choice disruption Diversity e-Commerce Economic Corridors economic policy economics education election studies Equity Market Ethnic Factors Europe Fannie Mae financial asset management Foreclosures France Freddie Mac general equilibrium Global global economy Global Financial Crisis great depression Great Recession healthy buildings Hedonic hospitality Housing & Residential housing boom Housing Disease housing prices Housing Supply Identity Income Inequality India inflation Inter-generational mobility interest rates Investing Lagging Regions land use regulation Language life sciences Macroeconomics Microeconomics Migration Minimum Payments Mixed-Use Mobility moral hazard mortgage insurance mortgage market Mortgage Rates Mortgages Multi-family Nation Building Non-Traditional Mortgages office sector pension funds Placed Based Policies Political Risk Price Discovery public health public policy Public Schools real estate brokerage Real Estate Investment Real Estate Investment Trusts Recession Rental Retail Retirement reverse mortgages risk management risk-shifting single family housing Slums Sorting South America Spatial Regions spillover effect stimulus package Sub-Prime Mortgages Supply Chains Sustainability Technology telecommunications unemployment United States Urban Urbanization welfare work from home