Definitions

City (variable “city”)

We define the city by the coverage of the housing market in historical newspapers at a point in time, including suburbs and other outlying areas beyond the city’s jurisdictional boundaries. The geographic area associated with most cities in the sample thus expands over the 20th century.

Year (variable “year”)

We sampled newspaper real estate sections from one to four times a year, with the end of May the most common time, to obtain a targeted number of listings for both homes for sale and for rent.

House Price Indices

Indices that measure the quality-adjusted change in the price of housing over time relative to a base year. To adjust for quality, we control for the number of rooms in the housing unit, the housing unit type, and a measure of location. We also include a flexible set of controls for unobserved quality changes in our hedonic regression framework. You can find the specification details in the associated working paper, “The Price of Housing in the United States, 1890–2006.”

Inflation-Adjusted City Indices (variable “rl_rpi_b_1948” for rents and “rl_hpi_b_1948” for sales in city indices)

These city-level indices are in real terms. The city-level indices are relative to 1948 levels, as not every city in the sample had a dense enough housing market to support a newspaper real estate section before that year.

Nominal City Indices (variable “rpi_b_1948” for rents and “hpi_b_1948” for sales”)

We also provide nominal sales and rental price indices, which are not adjusted for inflation.

National Indices (variable “rl_pw_rpi_b1890” for rents and “rl_pw_hpi_b1890” for sales in national indices)

These national indices are in real terms and relative to a base year of 1890. We aggregate the 30 sample city indices by population (interpolated across census years) to obtain the national indices.

Nominal National Indices (variable “pw_rpi_b_1890” for rents and “pw_hpi_b_1890” for sales”)

We also provide nominal sales and rental price indices, which are not adjusted for inflation.

Housing Returns Series

Housing returns can be broken down into two parts: a rental return (or yield) and a capital gains component. We provide series for each component at both the national and city levels in both real and nominal terms. You can consult the associated working paper, “The Price of Housing in the United States, 1890–2006” for details on how we constructed these returns series.

City Rental Return (variable “rw2_hrr”)

This is the city-level rental return based to the 2006 American Community Survey (ACS) for each metro area and using the formula [RI[t]/HPI[t-1].

National Rental Return (variable “rw2_pw_hrr_csw”)

This is the national rental return series based to a 2006 benchmark value and using the formula [RI[t]/HPI[t-1]. See paper for details.

City Capital Gains (variable “rw2_hcg” for nominal series and “rl_rw2_hcg” for inflation-adjusted series)

This is the city-level capital gains on housing in both nominal (not adjusted for inflation) and real (inflation-adjusted) terms using the formula [HPI[t]/HPI[t-1]-1].

National Capital Gains (variable “rw2_pw_hcg” for nominal series and “rl_rw2_pw_hcg” for inflation-adjusted series)

This is the national housing capital gains series using the formula [HPI[t]/HPI[t-1]-1]. See paper for details.

City Total Return to Housing (variable “rw2_htr” for nominal series and “rl_rw2_htr” for inflation-adjusted series)

This is the sum of the rental return and respective capital gains series for cities in both nominal (not adjusted for inflation) and real (adjusted for inflation) terms.

National Total Return to Housing (variable “rw2_pw_htr_csw” for nominal series and “rl_rw2_pw_htr_csw”)

This is the sum of the rental return and respective capital gains series nationally in both nominal (not adjusted for inflation) and real (adjusted for inflation) terms.