This book addresses essential questions about housing by building theoretical models based on various real world problems in Japan and testing these models using econometric methods. Almost all related empirical analyses use Japanese household longitudinal data. Accordingly, the author analyzes whole aspects of the data, based on an understanding of the actual situation, theory, and empirical analysis, to directly derive a vision of a future housing policy. Why are houses expensive and difficult to obtain in Japan? Why do people have to live in small houses? Why do people not relocate frequently? Why is the earthquake insurance subscription rate so low, particularly in an earthquake-prone country such as Japan, even after such a catastrophic event as the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011? How do existing housing finance and tax policies or laws relate to these real world problems? To answer these questions, the book clarifies the unique criteria that characterize housing problems in Japan and presents a vision of future housing policy. The short answer is that existing housing finance policy that adopts criteria based on the floor space of houses creates incentives for people to live in even smaller houses. Furthermore, the Japan Rental Act, which affects people renting homes, reduces residential mobility. The incidence of underinsurance against earthquake risk is a result of earthquake insurance market imperfections such as crude and rough geographical risk ratings. The book elaborates on these factors in four parts and will be of interest to all readers who are concerned with the housing market and household behavior in Japan.

This book explores how deregulation affect housing finance, and gives the broad patterns of development of institutions participating in mortgage markets. It also explores how the new housing finance system influences the cost and affordability of shelter.

Housing Policy in the United States is an essential guidebook to, and textbook for, housing policy, it is written for students, practitioners, government officials, real estate developers, and policy analysts. It discusses the most important issues in the field, introduces key concepts and institutions, and examines the most important programs. Written as an introductory text, it explains all concepts, trends, and programs without jargon, and includes empirical data concerning program evaluations, government documents, and studies carried out by the author and other scholars. The first chapters present the context surrounding US housing policy, including basic trends and problems, the housing finance system, and the role of the federal tax system in subsidizing homeowner and rental housing. The middle chapters focus on individual subsidy programs. The closing chapters discuss issues and programs that do not necessarily involve subsidies, including homeownership, mixed-income housing, and governmental efforts to improve access to housing by reducing discriminatory barriers in the housing and mortgage markets. The concluding chapter also offers reflections on future directions of US. housing policy.