I want to put in a plug for a book I finished last week that is incredibly relevant to anyone thinking about the differences in long-term forward regional home prices. The book, The Wealth & Poverty of Nations: Why Cities Matter, by Mario Polese, addresses the (not so rhetorical) questions that I asked over the years -why is this city here, and/or why does this city thrive relative to another. As Choice describes “This clearly argued and amply illustrated work is a useful introduction to the forces causing some cities/regions to grow and others to stagnate”.
While I was able to inhale the book on one recent cross-country flight, I don’t consider it to be a mass-market page turner. The book reads as if you were getting ~200 pages of anecdotes from someone who has dedicated their life’s work to using the material to illustrate economic theories to students -which is exactly the case. I found the comparisons between cities in the US, China, UK, Canada and Europe, all interesting and useful for supporting the author’s views.
The author’s conclusions help explain longer-term home price trends, and may be useful in identifying longer-term economic and political issues.
The book caters to a somewhat narrow audience -but that would include anyone here looking to understand differences in longer expiration contract prices across regions. I heartily reccomend this book to this audience.