Housing bubble a myth, study says
From Times wire services
Most cities in the United States showed little evidence of a housing bubble as of the end of 2004, according to a new study conducted by Columbia Business School and the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, which looked at 46 single-family housing markets from 1980 to 2004.
The researchers found that recent growth rates of home prices do not reflect a bubble and were largely explained by basic economic fundamentals such as low interest rates and strong income growth among high-income Americans.
No evidence was found that buyers are bidding up the price of houses based on unrealistic expectations of future increases.
