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Law and the economy co-evolve. John R. Commons demonstrated this co-evolution in the transformation of the legal definition of property from physical property to intangible property or the exchange-value of anything realized through transactions. Reasonable transactions required informed participation by parties. The 'fetish of liquidity' in the secondary mortgage market fostered by federal laws, favoring mortgage-backed securities, converted the transaction into intangible property. The debtor was no longer the customer of the bank but an obligor to nameless investors uninterested in his/her community. The secondary mortgage market deviated from Commons's standard for reasonable transactions because investors and home buyers were ignorant of the rights, duties, liberties, and exposures of the transactions. We examine the economic outcomes produced by these legal changes in Nevada, and the endogenous forces ignited by these practices in terms of foreclosures and failing communities. Keywords: asymmetric information, deeds of trust, intangible property, law and economics, reasonable transactions JEL Classification Codes: B52, D82, G14, K11, K40, The evolutionary path of the economy as affected by law has been 'driven by artificial selection of changing customs that ignited sets of endogenous forces' (Atkinson 2010, 290). The evolutionary [...]

The United Kingdom Labour party's focus on council homes is seen as an opportunity for reforms in the housing finance system. The government expects to build 3,000 new council houses over the next two years. Housing minister John Healey has initiated the 'dismantling' of the housing finance system.

Land, housing and the services that people need to live are being privatized throughout the world. The example of Chile is used to highlight the benefits of social housing and how a successful policy of home financing created a new urban housing predicament.

Effects of secondary mortgage markets on residential investment volatility and economic development are presented.

A study showing that the financial help received by children as a downpayment for housing from parents is with an ulterior motive. The parents provide such assistance to the children as an incentive to encourage the production of grandchildren, which orients child's need to give better attention to the parent. By demonstrating such a behavior the child sets example to his children of the appropriate behavior.

The study explores some of the key underwriting challenges facing Public Housing Authorities PHAs developing units through tax credit financing, particularly low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC). It also provides an overview of how to structure a deal for long-term success.

Housing is the single largest expenditure in the budget of most people and even a small percentage change in housing prices and rents have large impacts on nonhousing consumption. A study of various issues leading to housing affordability with respect to homeowners and renters in different income groups are discussed and policies and institutional arrangements to improve the affordability of housing for households are suggested.

We propose a model of mechanism choice in the disposition of real estate assets where we consider two alternatives: a search market and an auction. Within the search framework, we [...]

Housing combines all the interesting characteristics of a durable good: it is an essential good, it requires initial investments far in excess of a median annual household income and it [...]

German home-ownership rates are significantly lower than home-ownership rates in other nations. Perhaps attributable to several reasons, the ownership differential has become a major housing policy concern. This paper analyses the typical liquidity constraints for first-time home-buyers. It is well known that these constraints largely depend on the rate of inflation and result in credit rationing for investors whose income expectations are high but whose capital endowments are poor. Typically, this is the case for young families. Recently, German tax benefit schemes to promote home-ownership were rescheduled to avoid discrimination against young households. Still, the schemes place a high burden on public budgets. By contrast, the German Housing Policy commission proposed a scheme of home-ownership finance that combines private finance with a public pledge to overcome credit rationing. This paper examines the new proposal and its social, economic and fiscal implications., Introduction In Germany, the owner-occupied housing sector is expanding, but remains relatively small in comparison to that of other countries. At present, the home-ownership rate is approximately 40 per cent [...]