House Prices and Wind Farms

House prices within 2km of UK wind farms reduced by 5-6%.

This is What Market Dis-Equilibrium Looks Like

Caption in the accompanying Sydney Morning Herald article: "High rents driving retailers away: 89 shops on Oxford street are vacant, for lease or closing."

Legal Origin Strikes Again

van Ewijk and van Leuvensteijn have an article in VoxEU arguing for the EU to reduce taxes on residential mobility. What struck me was this chart:



The highest transactions costs are in French legal origin countries, moderate costs are seen in German and Scandinavian legal origin countries and the UK has the lowest costs. Ireland is stuck in the middle of the German group but the trend is still clear. This ordering is similar to the ordering of stringency of product and labor market regulation.

My research on sulfur emissions and now on energy efficiency has found that legal origin seems to make a difference in environmental policy. German and Scandinavian legal origin countries have the strictest environmental policies and English legal origin countries the weakest. French legal origin countries occupy an intermediate position.

Most Expensive U.S. Suburbs by State

Business Week has a list of the most expensive U.S. suburbs in each state. What's stunning from an Australian perspective is that in many states the most expensive suburbs are far cheaper than the median prices in all major Australian metropolitan areas.

Long-Term Returns in the Housing Market

This article from the Wall Street Journal seems pretty solid. Let me know if you can see any flaws. The bottom line is that you shouldn't pay any more to own than to rent a house (principal + interest) because the real capital gains about match the other costs including maintenance and property taxes. Of course, that ignores any utility you get from owning rather than renting...