CLICK HERE for A Guide to Some of My Blog Posts, Hither and Yon

I've been blogging for several years now.  I first started blogging at the Graaskamp Center for Real Estate, when we had control of our own website.  But "central planning" won out at the Wisconsin School of Business, as the School determined that in today's world, the benefits of a school-wide format and control over content exceeded the benefits of bottom-up content. Probably the right call, though I was sorry I no longer had the opportunity to bloviate at that location.

Once I "retired" in 2016 -- notice the quotes! -- I started my own blog, at this location. Some months later, my friend Morris Davis, Academic Director of Rutgers Center for Real Estate, started a very ambitious blog, and recruited yours truly and noted macroeconomist Julia Coronado to provide the majority of blog entries.

So my blog entries are scattered around at three different locations.  This post is a directory of  a number of my favorite posts, organized thematically , rather than chronologically or by the location of the post.

This post will be updated from time to time as I write more posts or find the odd one in some forgotten corner of this inter-web-net thing.

By the way, there are a lot of great blog posts at Rutgers written by Julia, Morris, and other colleagues.  Check them out!

And see the long list of "Malpezzi Favorites" to the right of this column for links to other interesting blogs and sources.

Back to my blogging.  I've got a wide range of interests, but I've written more about housing than any other single subject, so let's start there.


NB: * means it's one of my favorites.

YIKES!  Wisconsin has busted a number of my links!!!

I just discovered that the Wisconsin School of Business has taken down some (not all) of my UW blog posts.  They are dropping some "old" blog entries.  No sense of history, I guess.

Well, I suppose any large organization needs to do a little housecleaning.  But, before they went all Marie Kondo on us -- didn't those entries "spark joy" in anyone at UW anymore?  😧

I will leave the broken links here for the moment, marked with an X at the beginning.  I'll try to get the files and repost them sometime in the next few weeks.

Updated locations for those posts on the way.  Sorry for any inconvenience!

YIKES! YIKES!  Now Rutgers has moved their Real Estate Center Blog!

Now I just found out that Rutgers' Webmaster is playing with us too, moving all the Rutgers Blog posts to a new location:

https://realestate.business.rutgers.edu/blog

That means all my links to Rutgers entries are broken.  You can find my blog entries (and others by Morris Davis, Julia Coronado and others) by going to the link above and scrolling down.  But that's not always convenient.  OK, time to get to work and fix broken links.  Double sorry.

When I've fixed and/or checked a link below, I'll add ✅

In 2020, I got obsessed with COVID-19. It's not done yet!

A small posting on a big problem: Coronavirus.  ✅NB the post is small, but the files you will download there are large and chock-full of information.

Several related postings:

Thinking about Thinking: Are You a Bayesian?  ✅is much broader than coronavirus; but the post includes discussion about how Bayesian concepts allow us to correctly interpret results from COVID-19 tests, which, like most medical tests, have false positives and false negatives.

The Coronavirus at the University of Wisconsin: Two Presentations ✅  As the title suggests, I gave two short presentations to UW; focus includes analysis of what UW and other universities should be doing to open as safely as possible.

Cities and the Pandemic: Observations and Scenarios ✅ Based on two presentations I gave to fellow World Bank alumni, and some current staff, on how the pandemic might affect cities in general, and transportation in particular.

Economic Impact of COVID-19 on the Housing Market. ✅ Just what it says.  This one is evolving more than most.

I haven't posted on this for some time -- I have some additonal material I'll share at a future date.

My Most Important Post of 2022

*Background on Ukraine: Some History, Some Current Events, Some Thoughts on Reconstruction ✅

My Most Important Post of 2023

*Israel, Palestine, and the "Middle East:" Some Background ✅

Housing Posts

The first batch are mostly domestic, although over time I'll post more about my international work.

Housing supply and demand: some basics ✅

*A first look at housing “affordability” in New Jersey and the United States ✅

Digging deeper on rent controls ✅

Will inclusionary zoning (IZ) help solve our affordability problems? ✅

*Low-income housing programs that work: 3 posts on vouchers

Part I: Are vouchers the answer? ✅

Part II: Vouchers, a win for the housing market and the economy? ✅

Part III: Can we change the game in affordable housing? ✅

*Low-income housing programs that work: 3 posts on land use and development regulation, NIMBYs and YIMBYs:

PartI: The opportunities of regulatory reform ✅

Part II: Housing market regulation costs and benefits ✅

Part III: A closer look at supply-side reform ✅

Housing in the Great Financial Crisis, the Great Recession, and their aftermath ✅
Housing, interest rates and capital flows: impacts and interrelationships ✅
Housing prices: Growth, stagnation or decline? ✅

Housing starts
Stocks, flows and the impact of housing prices on CPI and inflation ✅

What's the latest angle on metropolitan housing prices?✅

"It's A Wonderful Mortgage:" U.S. mortgage market history ✅
International comparison of mortgage markets: part 1 ✅
International comparison of mortgage markets: part 2 ✅

International comparison of mortgage markets: part 3 ✅

Hurricanes, housing and climate change: Risks and responses ✅

*Getting Housing Incentives Right: A classic case study from Malaysia ✅

*"Inside Baseball" on "Affordable" Housing: Some U.S. Resources ✅

* A Global Look at Housing Affordability ✅

Global Perspectives on Housing Finance ✅

* Rent Control Redux ✅

"Financialization" and Housing: An Economist's Thoughts ✅

Housing’s Contribution to Economic Development: Reframing the Narrative ✅

*Housing Policy "Recipes," Applied to China ✅

Posts about Urbanization and Economic Development

Introduction to the city ✅

The complex role of immigration in our cities ✅

X The Wisconsin Idea meets Barcelona:
X Part I
X Part II
X Part III

Crime: how bad is it? ✅

Opportunity Zones: Old wine in new bottles -- or a tasty new vintage? ✅

Cost-Benefit Analysis: Some Notes for Urban Projects ✅

Global Perspectives on Real Estate and Urban Development in a Time of Stress ✅
(My presentation to the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association in honor of John Quigley)

Thoughts on the Post-storm Power Shortages in Texas ✅

Urbanization and Climate Change: A First Look ✅

*Disasters Redux: This Time, Earthquakes ✅

*Studying Climate Change: A Brief Introduction ✅

Other Real Estate

*"I believe you have my stapler."  A journey through office space from Babylonian scribes to Milton Waddams to Apple’s ‘mothership’ ✅

Economic Indicators, The Aggregate Economy

The Price is Right -- Or Is It? Taking a longer run look at inflation and relative prices ✅

What are those "Millennials" up to? ✅

Income and Employment Growth is a Different Animal in Every State ✅

Employment Data: Missing the Elephant in the Room? ✅

*A first look at the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, the economy, and real estate ✅

Introduction to global urban indicators ✅

A first look: Do presidents drive the economy? What will divided government mean for the economy? ✅

The Wisconsin Idea

Wisconsin Real Estate: A Century of Tradition, and Innovation ✅

*Values of the Wisconsin Real Estate Program ✅

A Little Graaskamp Center History ✅

Michael Brennan ✅

Reading for Life

The original "Reading for Life" list -- as amended, May 2012 -- can be found here. ✅

Later blog posts on the topic:
Observations on essays, blogging, and reading for life
Ben Bernanke's "Reading for Life?"
Bobos in Paradise

Nature's Metropolis
Reading for Life on the financial crisis
Summer reading (The Winner's Curse, This Time is Different)

One of the Best Books Ever Written About Cities: Order Without Design ✅

"Order Without Design" is now available in Chinese ✅

Me, me, me.  It's all about me.

I retired. 

I haven't quit. ✅

The IMF's Hites Ahir and Prakash Loungani were kind enough to interview me. ✅ (And lots of other interesting people, check it out. ✅

If you Google "Malpezzi," you get one of my brothers first. ✅

The John Quigley Medal: The greatest professional honor I will ever receive. ✅

Sad News

X Remembrance for Arthur Goldberger

In memoriam, John Quigley ✅

Chip Case, top housing economist and master teacher, passes away ✅

Remembering Austin Jaffe ✅

Remembering Jim Curtis ✅

Remembering Nino Pedrelli ✅

Miscellany

Economics and elections  Originally at UW but Reposted at my blog here! ✅

X "The Calculator:" A peaen to the HP 12-C

A digression on brutalist architecture ✅

I was one of a team of bloggers at Rutgers.  You can find the complete list of Rutgers Center for Real Estate Blogs here. ✅  Great contributions by Morris Davis, Julia Coronado, and other colleagues on a wide range of topics!