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Session 8: Home Prices
Housing prices, after rising rapidly for many years, have leveled off and in many instances have started to decline. What is the relative importance of nonfinancial fundamentals and financial market developments in current housing price movements? How do regional and national trends differ?
Presentations
Speakers
Roy Webb
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
Roy Webb is a Research Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. His main research interest is tracking the economy and developing a coherent explanation of significant trends and events. A related interest that has generated several papers is the use of VAR models for macroeconomic forecasting
David Berson
PMI Group
As Chief Economist and Strategist, David Berson's responsibilities include domestic and global market research and planning, support of government relations and public policy, and strategic environmental planning. He also acts as a PMI spokesperson on topics related to global economic housing, and mortgage market conditions, prospects, and policy.
Berson comes to PMI from Fannie Mae, where he was Vice President and Chief Economist since 1989. At Fannie Mae Berson was responsible for advising the company on national and regional economic, housing, and mortgage policy and conditions, including forecasts and analyses of the economy, interest rates, and housing and mortgage finance markets. Berson was also a senior member of the corporate strategy group, where he provided alternative views and risk analyses based on economic and market changes.
Prior to Fannie Mae, Berson held senior management positions at Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates overseeing domestic services, financial analysis, and modeling. As well, he has held several teaching positions at the University of Michigan, Claremont McKenna College, and Claremont Graduate School. Berson has published more than ten papers on the U.S. housing and mortgage markets.
Berson received a Ph.D. in economics and a M.P.P. in public policy from the University of Michigan, and a B.A. in history and economics from Williams College. He has a long history of civic activity and currently serves on the advisory board for the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area and the board of directors for Crossway Community, a transitional housing project for homeless families.
Richard Peach
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Dick Peach is a Senior Vice President in the Macroeconomic and Monetary Studies Function of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He participates in the development of the Bank's forecast for the U.S. economy and oversees the Bank's projections of federal receipts and outlays. His long-term research interests have been primarily in housing and real estate finance topics. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in June of 1992, he was Staff Vice President and Deputy Chief Economist of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBA). He played a key role in the development of MBA's Weekly Survey of Mortgage Loan Applications, a closely watched indicator of conditions in housing and mortgage markets. Prior to joining the MBA in 1986, he was Staff Vice President for Forecasting and Policy Analysis of the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
His fields of interest include: Alternative measures of inflation; Federal fiscal policy; Housing and real estate finance; U.S. macro forecast.
He has a Ph.D., Economics, University of Maryland, August, 1983; M.A., Economics, University of Maryland, May, 1979; B.S., Economics, Pennsylvania State, June, 1973
Mark Zandi
Moody's Economy.com
Mark Zandi is Chief Economist and co-founder of Moody’s Economy.com, Inc., where he directs the company’s research and consulting activities. Moody’s Economy.com is an independent subsidiary of the Moody’s Corporation and provides economic research and consulting services to businesses, governments and other institutions. Mark’s research interests include macroeconomic, financial, and regional economics. Recent areas of research include studying the determinants of mortgage foreclosure and personal bankruptcy, an analysis of the economic impact of various tax and government spending policies, and an assessment of the appropriate policy response to bubbles in asset markets. In addition, Mark conducts regular briefings on the economy. He is frequently quoted in national and global news outlets. Dr. Zandi received his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, where he did his research with Gerard Adams and Nobel Laureate Lawrence Klein, and he received his B.S. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
