This paper presents a review and synthesis of recent research on mortgage relief programs in the United States and the United Kingdom, examining both preventive and reactive measures designed to mitigate default risks and support housing market stability. It examines theoretical, empirical, and regulatory perspectives to highlight how these initiatives operate across different policy dimensions, including payment relief and affordability, foreclosure avoidance, take-up and accessibility, redefault outcomes, and broader housing-market stabilization. By integrating evidence from historical downturns and post-COVID interest rate hikes, the paper identifies recurring strengths and limitations across different intervention types, regulatory tools, and policy contexts. Notably, it underscores the importance of stronger underwriting standards and broader access to long-term fixed-rate mortgages as structural features that can reduce default risk and strengthen market resilience before distress emerges. The analysis provides decision-makers with a comparative framework for evaluating mortgage relief strategies and for designing interventions that better protect vulnerable households while supporting housing-market stability.

This study examines the housing market resiliency from the unexpected I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Minnesota that occurred in August 2007. I rely on an event study and a difference-indifferences analysis to document a symmetric effect of house prices after versus before the shock, for houses sold close to the bridge. I consider various measures of highway access and direct proximity (i.e., exposure to disamenities) from the bridge, including a range of distance radii and distance bands. While there is evidence of significant drive time benefits to house prices from proximity, and significantly higher house prices that are further away from the bridge, these effects are no different after the reopening of the bridge than before the collapse. These robust results imply that the willingness to pay for houses near the bridge was resilient to the reopening of the bridge, contributing to the transportation resilience literature.

We study how real estate investors affect residential housing markets. Israeli administrative data show that an unexpected and temporary capital gains tax exemption induced a rise in investor sales and reduced investor ownership. Exploiting variation in investor outflows across local markets, we find that investor net outflows raised both rents and house prices, challenging conventional wisdom. We propose a new theory in which investors allocate housing units between rental use and owner-occupancy, thereby either easing or amplifying market inefficiencies. Investor outflows can raise or lower prices depending on initial conditions, with prices rising when investor participation is too low.

This study examines the capitalization of location-based personal income tax incentives into residential real estate prices, utilizing a comprehensive dataset of housing transactions in Israel from 1998 to 2023. We exploit a major legislative reform in 2016 that significantly expanded the set of localities eligible for income tax credits, based on geographic periphery, socio-economic status, and border proximity, to estimate the causal effect of fiscal benefits on local housing markets.

Green spaces moderate adverse climate change effects in urban areas. A GIS dataset on tree canopies within urban areas in Israel is employed to examine disparities in tree canopy availability associated with population political beliefs. Political inclination is identified based on small statistical area votes in national elections using a clustering method. Based on multivariate regression analysis, findings show that areas dominated by politically left-leaning voters are associated with a greater presence of tree canopies, as compared to their right-leaning counterparts. We also find that ethnic background, socioeconomic index score, income level, age, proximity to central business districts and density are associated with the availability of tree canopies

We utilize unique information on traffic citations to explore the role of political belief in risky driving behavior. Information on this little-explored measure of risk-taking is obtained from the traffic citations dataset of the Israel Police for 2019–2022. We identify political belief based on voting outcomes by small statistical area for the 2019 Israel parliament elections.

Akin to many countries worldwide, property tax is one of the most important sources of revenue for municipalities in Israel. Municipal governments often perceive the conversion of open spaces and land development as a means to attract new businesses and residents, thereby generating additional tax revenue

Home builders often rely on a combination of traditional credit and presale
agreements to fund construction. In presale, buyers make advanced payments to
builders, repaid by the delivery of a completed condo.

We replicate the results of our previous study about the effect of intelligence and financial resources on the repayment on High- and Low- Consequence Debts (abbreviated as HCD and LCD, respectively), and extend the scope of the individual differences that are examined to include personality characteristics, and particularly the big-five personality dimensions.

The paper examines the consequences of drastic top-down policy interventions aimed at resolving a severe housing price crisis in Israel. The government's main effort was to increase the housing supply, using two main tools: "umbrella agreements" and "buyer's price", which were often implemented together. What impact have these (drastic) policy measures had on housing prices and location?

The research studies the effects of improved public information on equilibrium welfare and price dispersion, providing sufficient conditions for negative and positive effects. Public information affects welfare by reducing excessive (though rational) pessimism induced by sequential learning. Reduced pessimism results in fewer agents withdrawing from the market prematurely (compared with the full information benchmark), which increases own ex-post utility in expectation but may also cause a congestion externality.

We employ comprehensive Israeli data to study how political belief affects COVID-19 virus risk, vaccine uptake, and response to closure policy. We identify households that hold divergent political beliefs based on votes in Israel’s 2020 national election. Results indicate substantial variation in outcomes across belief clusters.