Real Estate Prices During the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression
44 Pages Posted: 8 Sep 2009 Last revised: 24 Mar 2011
Date Written: March 21, 2011
Abstract
Using new data on market-based transactions we construct real estate price indexes for Manhattan between 1920 and 1939. During the 1920s prices reached their highest level in the third quarter of 1929 before falling by 67 percent at the end of 1932 and hovering around that value for most of the Great Depression. The value of high-end properties strongly co-moved with the stock market between 1929 and 1932. A typical property bought in 1920 would have retained only 56 percent of its initial value in nominal terms two decades later. An investment in the stock market index (including dividends) would have outperformed an investment in a typical property (including net rental income), by a factor of 5.2 over our time period.
Keywords: Real Estate, Price Index, Great Depression
JEL Classification: E32, G01, N12, N92, L85
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Did Securitization Lead to Lax Screening? Evidence from Subprime Loans
By Benjamin J. Keys, Tanmoy K. Mukherjee, ...
-
The Consequences of Mortgage Credit Expansion: Evidence from the U.S. Mortgage Default Crisis
By Atif R. Mian and Amir Sufi
-
The Consequences of Mortgage Credit Expansion: Evidence from the 2007 Mortgage Default Crisis
By Atif R. Mian and Amir Sufi
-
Understanding the Subprime Mortgage Crisis
By Yuliya Demyanyk and Otto Van Hemert
-
Assessing High House Prices: Bubbles, Fundamentals, and Misperceptions
-
Assessing High House Prices: Bubbles, Fundamentals, and Misperceptions
-
Understanding the Securitization of Subprime Mortgage Credit
By Adam B. Ashcraft and Til Schuermann
-
Housing Supply and Housing Bubbles
By Edward L. Glaeser, Joseph Gyourko, ...
-
Housing Supply and Housing Bubbles
By Edward L. Glaeser, Joseph Gyourko, ...
-
Urban Growth and Housing Supply
By Edward L. Glaeser, Joseph Gyourko, ...