US Housing Market during COVID-19: Aggregate and Distributional Evidence

Using zip code-level data and nonparametric estimation, I present eight stylized facts and test three hypotheses on the COVID-era US housing market. Some results are: (1) growth rate of median housing price since the Fed’s monetary easing has accelerated faster than in the lead-up to global financial crisis; (2) the increase of housing demand seems more pronounced among the two ends of income distribution; (3) the housing market developments are strikingly similar across the country. These results highlight some potential unintended consequences of the COVID-era monetary easing, including driving up housing prices, weakening financial stability, and increasing wealth inequality.