Affordability Report : a quarterly update on the affordability of housing [online]

Authors: HIA Economics Group; Commonwealth Bank

"Report on housing affordability for first home buyers. Contains analysis for each state and territory, excluding NT but including non-metro areas. Report contains:
* Affordability indices for all states and territories (except NT), metro and regional
* National median incomes and minimum repayments for a median priced home
* A rolling 6 quarters of original house price data for - Established dwellings, Detached Houses;- Established Dwellings, Units;- Established Dwellings, Total; and - New Dwellings, Total."

The (Mythical?) housing wealth effect [online]
Source: National Bureau of Economic Research (US)
"We conclude that the housing wealth effect has been overstated. While we do not deny that housing is perhaps the most important sector of the economy with respect to business cycle fluctuations, that link likely reflects channels other than the housing wealth effect." - page 3.

When jobs disappear. (journal article)
from Economist, 3/14/2009, Vol. 390 Issue 8622, p71-73
Abstract: This article discusses the problem of rising unemployment around the world. The downturn in hiring during the recession that began in 2007 is compared with those of six other economic downturns that have occurred since 1945. The challenges posed to economic adaptation by the rigidities of the social safety nets established by the welfare state and constraints on geographic mobility associated with the housing market are described.

How Much do Public Schools Really Cost? Estimating the Relationship between House Prices and School Quality
By Ian Davidoff and Andrew Leigh
from Economic Record Vol 84 Iss 265 Jun 2008, pp. 193–206
"This paper investigates the relationship between housing prices and the quality of public schools in the Australian Capital Territory. To disentangle the effects of schools and other neighbourhood characteristics on the value of residential properties, we compare sale prices of homes on either side of high school attendance boundaries. We find that a 5 percentage point increase in test scores (approximately 1 SD) is associated with a 3.5 per cent increase in house prices. Our result is in line with private school tuition costs, and accords with prior research from the UK and the USA. Estimating the effect of school quality on house prices provides a possible measure of the extent to which parents value better educational outcomes. "