UCLA Real Estate Wire

Can Washington Resolve the Federal Deficit?

In May's UCLA Economic Letter, Edward E. Leamer, Director, UCLA Anderson Forecast, and Ziman Center economist, proposes a novel solution.  Read Prof. Leamer's Letter here.

Will an Artisanal Pop-Up Arts Village Restore Westwood?

The UCLA Hammer Museum just annouced a $100K grant from the Goldhirsh Foundation's My LA2050 challenge. Hammer's Arts ReSTORE LA: Westwood proposal hopes to tap LA's creative community for Westwood Village revitalization.

“We’re all thrilled to have received LA2050’s arts and cultural vitality grant,” said Hammer director Ann Philbin. “Now it is time to roll up our sleeves, get to work, and show how Los Angeles’ creative community can be a forceful economic driver.”

 

The Economic Recovery: A Novel Perspective from Ed Leamer (The Numbers Game with Russ Roberts)

 

Sufi Asks; Will Housing Save the U.S Economy?

Amir Sufi of the University of Chicago's Booth Business School has written a fascinating and accessible paper.  You can read it here.    Below, I reproduce a  Figure from his paper.   Home owners with lower FICO scores extract a much larger % of their house equity than households with higher FICO scores.  The low FICO score households must have sought to increase their consumption of durables such as cars, and clothes and other desirables such as clothing and fine dining and their housing equity allowed them to finance such expenditures even if their current income wasn't high.    This paper highlights the exciting new facts that can be uncovered using better data.  Think about what information the researcher needs to make a figure such as this one.  The "average person" doesn't exist!

 

 

Today or Tomorrowland?

Vincze Miklós' io9 post,"Lush, High-Tech Ecotopias of Today and Tomorrow" channels global high-tech and carbon neutral urban centers.


"Europa City", suburbs of Paris by Danish architecture firm BIG, led by Bjarke Ingels.

How Fast Can the Economy Grow?

Discussions about the economy tend to focus much more on the Fed’s latest program to stimulate spending and the drama on Capitol Hill than on the potential for the economy to generate higher income over the long haul. In April's UCLA Economic Letter, “How Fast Can the Economy Grow? That Depends on Information Technology and Sensible Policy Actions," I discuss new research on the growth potential for the U.S. economy. Read the Letter here.

Some Thoughts on How High Speed Rail Impacts Economic Geography

Here is my piece on bullet trains and economic geography.

What Is Predicting Long-Term Home Price Increases Across Cities?

In March's UCLA Economic Letter, William Wei-Choun Yu, Ph.D, Economist at the UCLA Anderson Forecast, looks at predictors of home price growths in U.S. cities.  Read Prof. Yu's Letter here.

The Long Term Future for Phoenix Real Estate Prices

This thought provoking piece argues that climate change is going to hurt Phoenix and drag down real estate prices there.    For real estate owners in that great city and for developers considering building new housing there, how should they respond?  

The piece argues that Phoenix's quality of life will deteriorate because of climate change as it  will become even hotter due, face water shortages and potential power blackouts.  For those who need some optimism in your life, consider reading my Climatopolis book.  My book focuses on how urbanites and cities around the world will adapt to the serious challenge of climate change.   Given that we anticipate that Phoenix will grow hotter, adaptation strategies such as tree planting and new architecture and more efficient air conditioning will be needed.  Given that we anticipate water scarcity, Phoenix will need to introduce dynamic pricing of water and allow the price of water to rise to reflec this scarcity.  Decentralized power generation will reduce the probability of power blackouts and again dynamic pricing of electricity will guarantee that aggregate demand does not exceed the aggregate supply of power.  Note how my vision harnesses capitalism to protect us from climate change!

If Phoenix takes the steps I've listed, it will remain a livable city.  If it doesn't people will migrate away. Note that this credible threat of out-migration incentivizes the mayor to step up and support the actions I listed above.  This shows how competition facilitates adaptation!

Gentrification in New Parts of Brooklyn

The NY Times reports on the spread of gentrification within Brooklyn.  My research interest here is the "snowball effect".  As richer people move into a neighborhood, how much time passes before upscale restaurants and stores such as Starbucks or a Wholefoods locates in the area?  As this process plays out, does this then attract more people to move to the area? The winners from this dynamic are the land owners while many renters will find themselves prices out of their old neighborhood.