Stuart A. Gabriel

Rental Housing Markets and the Natural Vacancy Rate

This paper employs new census vacancy rate data to analyze the price-adjustment mechanism for rental housing. The study extends previous research on this topic, which provided conflicting evidence concerning the traditional theory of rental housing market adjustment (see Smith [10], [11]; DeLeeuw and Ekanem [2]; Eubank and Sirmans [4]; and Rosen and Smith [8]). Cross-section and time-series data are pooled to estimate natural vacancy rates for sixteen United States cities for the 1981-85 period. The analysis further explores the determinants of variation in natural vacancy rates across those metropolitan areas. Copyright American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.

On the Determinants of Yield Spreads between Mortgage Pass-Through and Treasury Securities

Yield spreads between mortgage pass-through and U.S. Treasury securities may reflect differences in taxation, phenomena affecting relative supply and demand, and compensation for default, call, and marketability risks on mortgage instruments. Our research empirically models differences in yields between pass-throughs and comparable-maturity Treasuries. We find that interest-rate volatility and the term structure of rates, factors often cited in the mortgage pricing literature as affecting the mortgage call premium, are the primary determinants of movements in these spreads. Moreover, these effects have grown in importance in recent years as exercise of the prepayment option has increased. We also find evidence that liquidity and credit concerns affect the pricing of pass-through securities.

Dismantling the community-based service system.

Abstract As a result of the community-based human services movement in the 1960s and 1970s, massive numbers of dependent people moved out of large-scale institutions and returned to community life. Clients and their support services concentrated in inner cities, forming “service-dependent population ghettos” there. Recently, however, new urban economic development patterns, local land use policies that limit housing supply, and reductions in funds for social programs have begun to dismantle the service-dependent population ghettos in some cities. These changes may force dependent clients back into institutions, into service settings that do not suit their needs, or onto the streets. Using a case study of Santa Clara County, California, this article describes the forces that contributed to development, and now to decline, of the service-dependent population ghetto there. The authors argue that planners and policymakers need to address the problems of service-dependent groups before those problems worsen. P...

Spillover effects of human service facilities in a racially segmented housing market

Abstract Previous studies of human service facility spillovers on residential property values have been inconclusive, and have failed to take into account the effects of racial segmentation of housing markets. Likewise, studies of racial discrimination in urban housing markets and price differentials between white and nonwhite areas of the city have failed to consider the impacts of service facilities on prices. This study develops an hedonic price model of housing services in a racially segmented housing market, which considers a variety of human service facilities and their spillover effects. Model results for Oakland, California in 1976 indicate that facilities significantly affect housing prices both positively and negatively, and that these effects vary by racial submarket. Implications of these findings for the interpretation of past discrimination studies, facility impact studies, and social policy are considered.

A Note on Housing Market Segmentation in an Israeli Development Town

Wbile the Israeli experiment in new town development included an attempt to integrate immigrants of disparate African, Asian and European backgrounds, subsequent development patterns indicate that neighbourhood stratification has occurred based upon population origin, date of immigration and local housing conditions. This analysis develops a hedonic price model which enables the specification and testing of the segmentation hypothesis. Disaggregation by neighbourhood reveals significant variation in the magnitude and sign of implicit prices and thus conflicts with the assumption of a unified housing market model.

Economic Effects of Racial Integration: An Analysis of Hedonic Housing Prices and the Willingness to Pay

This study evaluates household economic effects stemming from neighborhood racial integration in Oakland, California. To that end, housing market data are applied to estimate hedonic price and willingness-to-pay functions for neighborhood racial composition. Results of the analysis indicate the problematic nature of the constant willingness-to-pay assumption and suggest this standard method may underestimate the household economic effects of racial integration. The paper concludes with implications for neighborhood integration policy. Copyright American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.

DEVELOPMENT AND DECLINE OF SERVICE-DEPENDENT POPULATION GHETTOS

During the past two decades, the delivery of community-based human services for the mentally i l l , physically disabled, elderly, and other service-dependent population groups became more prevalent than treatment in large-scale institutions. Because of the need for community-based services and their clients to be close together, and because of restrictions on their location choice due to economic constraints and community opposition, service-dependent population ghettos developed in many inner cities. Recently, however, shifting urban economic growth patterns, local land-use policies that limit housing construction, and cuts in public social program funds are leading to the decline of these ghettos in some cities. Using a case study of Santa Clara County, California, this article delineates the forces underlying development and now decline of a service-dependent population ghetto. Ghetto decline may create serious problems for service-dependent populations which need to be addressed by policy makers and ...

Cyclical fluctuations in the Israeli housing market

Abstract While public construction in Israel is of a magnitude sufficient to exert effective housing market countercyclical influence, it has often had the opposite effect. This phenomenon is viewed with particular concern, given that economywide recessions of past decades have been precipitated by significant downturns in the construction industry. This paper describes specification and estimation of a simultaneous-equation structural model of the Israeli housing market. Results of the analysis indicate the importance of disaggregation by public and private sectors as well as the significance of mortgage availability and price, substitution and income effects, disruptions caused by war and the like in an explanation of cyclical phenomenon.