February 17, 2017
Friday’s Government Reports Roundup
- In a paper, titled How Taxes and Required Returns Drove Commercial Real Estate Valuations Over the Past Four Decades, the authors document the evolution of U.S. tax law regarding commercial real estate (CRE) since 1975, noting changes in income and capital gains tax rates and tax depreciation methods. The most prominent changes were the 1981 and 1986 Tax Acts, but numerous significant changes occurred in the last dozen years.
- In his paper, titled GSE Activity and Mortgage Supply in Lower Income and Minority Neighborhoods: The Effect of the Affordable Housing Goals, Neil Bhutta of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, estimates the credit supply effect of the Underserved Areas Goal (UAG), which establishes GSE purchase goals for mortgages to lower-income and minority neighborhoods.
- The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco published a blog post this week that examines five factors that are limiting economic mobility in the U.S. These factors are widening income inequality, reduced hours and lower wages among part-time workers, increasingly long commutes, college degrees having less value for certain populations, and people not saving enough money.
