Friday, October 10, 2008

Flashback 2005: "Little evidence of a housing bubble"

I missed the anniversary of this one. I apologize.

From September 25, 2005, the geniuses at two Ivy League business schools said there was little evidence of a housing bubble:
Most cities in the United States showed little evidence of a housing bubble as of the end of 2004, according to a new study conducted by Columbia Business School and the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, which looked at 46 single-family housing markets from 1980 to 2004.

The researchers found that recent growth rates of home prices do not reflect a bubble and were largely explained by basic economic fundamentals such as low interest rates and strong income growth among high-income Americans.

No evidence was found that buyers are bidding up the price of houses based on unrealistic expectations of future increases.