All Research
Report
Closing Detroit’s Appraisal Gap: A Market-Based Strategy to Revive Vacant Neighborhoods—Lessons for Struggling Cities Across the Nation
Detroit has experienced population decline of nearly two-thirds since 1950 and continues to have a massive vacant residential lot problem. The AEI Housing Center estimates that Detroit has 134,000 vacant…
Article
Capital Gains Rules on Home Sales and Senior Homeowner Lock In
Would ending the capital gains lock-in for senior homeowners free up larger homes for families? Summary: For senior homeowners, removing the cap entirely or retroactively inflation adjusting the current caps…
Report
Median First-Time Homebuyer Age at 34 Years in 2025, Little Changed from 2024
Note: Going forward, quarterly updates will be released of median and average first-time homebuyer age data. The median and average ages for first-time buyers obtaining mortgage loans in calendar year…
Op-Ed
Washington, Not Wall Street, Is the Real Housing Problem
This op-ed was first published by Real Clear Markets. You can read the full piece here. President Trump recently declared that “people should live in homes, not corporations,” echoing a widespread frustration with rising…
Report
Rent Control: A Proven Way to Make Housing Scarce and Expensive
Economists from across the political spectrum agree that even modest rent controls would not help middle-income Americans. This consensus reflects decades of research and examples across the U.S. and around the world….
Working Paper
The Philadelphia Story: The Impact of the 2000 Tax Abatement Program on Philadelphia’s Revival
Abstract This paper evaluates the effects of Philadelphia’s 2000 residential property tax abatement, which exempted improvement values on newly constructed or substantially renovated properties, on housing markets, neighborhood reinvestment, and…
Op-Ed
American Housing Needs More Institutional Investors
This op-ed was first published by Real Clear Markets. You can read the full piece here. President Trump’s Executive Order to ban institutional investors from purchasing single family homes gets the equation backward. The…
Testimony
Congressional Testimony: Unlocking Capital to Save the American Dream
On January 22, Ed Pinto testified before the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs of the House Oversight Committee. Pinto’s keys to unlocking capital: An income tax exemption…
Article
President Trump and Institutional Investors in Single-Family Rentals
President Trump has expressed understandable concern with the state of the single-family housing market that he inherited a year ago. During the Biden administration, home prices went up by 34%…
Article
NAR Says the Typical First-Time Homebuyer Age Was 40 This Year, Up from 33 in 2021—but Is This Accurate?
It is a challenging time to become a first-time homebuyer (FTB).1 Recent age data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) appears to confirm that young FTBs are facing desperate…
Article
Three Years Later, Permanent Rate Buydowns Continue to Prop Up New Home Prices
When mortgage rates surged in early 2022, most sellers faced an uncomfortable reality: Affordability had collapsed and buyers were pulling back; existing home sales slowed significantly, and inventories of unsold…
Article
The 9 Million Family-Friendly Apartments Hiding in Plain Sight
The Institute for Family Studies has delivered exceptional research demonstrating that Americans overwhelmingly prefer family-friendly housing with multiple bedrooms. Lyman Stone and Bobby Fijan’s survey of over 6,000 Americans confirms what housing analysts have…