Rutgers Center for Real Estate Blog
Housing market trends? Cue the statisticians
Growth, stagnation or decline: why it could break any way This post follows up on our previous blog that provided an overview of the measurement of residential rents and values, and discussed recent...
Housing prices: The ins and outs
Stocks, flows and the impact of housing prices on CPI and inflation We extend discussions of inflation and changes in relative prices from previous posts, focusing on housing prices. Specifically, we...
So why aren’t the fat cats spending?
Boom and bust hits a forecasting variable economists used to bank on Consumer net worth is now a standard input to macroeconomic forecasting models, and recent record highs have added to policy makers...
The Price is Right - or is it?
Taking a longer run look at inflation and relative prices Executive Summary: We extend several recent blog posts by taking a longer run look at inflation, and relative prices. We explain why the Fed...
Low inflation: A sign of fading consumer demand?
The correlations between weakness in consumer spending and inflation Are the recent low inflation readings a signal of weakening consumer demand or a transitory development? The answer is key for...
Seeing the big picture on employment?
Today we’ll examine the “employment elephant” one more time! Executive Summary: Today we’ll examine the “employment elephant” one more time. First, we’ll return to state data, documenting some key...
Blue Skies for Consumers Clouds for Fed?
Why lower housing inflation may also lock in low interest rates Housing is one of the largest items in consumer budgets, and it is also therefore a lynchpin in measures of consumer inflation. Housing...
Havana sights, Cuba insights
If you could assemble all of the islands in the Caribbean, the resulting land mass would still be less than 50% of the size of Cuba. In fact, the main island of Cuba stretches over 600 miles from...
Missing the Elephant in the Room
As in the old parable, how we understand employment data depends on what we see Executive Summary: Today we’ll continue our look at employment data, in several of its many guises. We’ll briefly...
Low Inflation: The Good and Bad
Fewer inflation swings worldwide. But domestic monetary policy may sway it less. Executive Summary: While policy makers at the fed were in general agreement when they raised rates in June, there is...