01863cas a2200241 a 4500 AALejournalIMF003833 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 5.00 USD 9781451862195 1018-5941 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL Schnure, Calvin. Boom-Bust Cycles in Housing : The Changing Role of Financial Structure / Calvin Schnure. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2005. 1 online resource (27 pages) IMF Working Papers <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students Why are housing markets so prone to boom-bust cycles? The mortgage market structure prior to the Savings and Loan crisis contributed to the volatility in real housing activity which, in turn, amplified the volatility in housing prices. The subsequent development of a national, market-based system of securitized mortgage finance has damped this boom-bust cycle. We test whether deviations of actual housing prices from values forecast by a model based on economic fundamentals have responded to the change in financial structure, and find that pricing errors have fallen significantly since the mid-1980s. Tests of the relative importance of the change in financial market structure versus the reduction of inflation over this period indicate a primary role for market structure in improving pricing efficiency. Mode of access: Internet IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2005/200 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2005/200/001.2005.issue-200-en.xml IMF e-Library