Ed Coulson
Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Real Estate | UC Irvine
Irvine, CA, UNITED STATES
N. Edward Coulson teaches in the area of Economics and Public Policy and serves in the school’s Center for Real Estate.
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Biography
UCI Paul Merage School of Business welcomed prominent Professor of Economics N. Edward Coulson into our faculty in 2016. He teaches in the area of Economics and Public Policy and serves in the school’s Center for Real Estate as Director of Research. In this capacity, Coulson advances the real estate program’s agenda of excellence in teaching, research and professional outreach.
Coulson received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of California, Riverside, and a PhD from UC San Diego, where he studied under the direction of Nobel Laureate Robert Engle. He previously served as professor of Economics and director of the Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Prior to UNLV, he served as professor of Economics and King Faculty Fellow in Real Estate at The Pennsylvania State University where he had been a member of the faculty since 1984 and had received numerous outstanding teaching awards.
Among the many topics Professor Coulson has done research on are: the mismeasurement of rent in the Consumer Price Index, and its implications for macroeconomic policy; the bias in residential appraisals; the impact of homeownership on people’s lives and neighborhoods; home prices; multifamily housing and its management; historic districts; the relationship between REITs and other asset markets; and many others. His co-edited book Energy Efficiency and the Future of Real Estate was published by Palgrave Press in 2017,
In addition to his extensive research, Coulson has served as co-editor of numerous journals and served as president of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA) in 2016.
Areas of Expertise (5)
Urban Economics
Real Estate
Economics
Public Policy
Housing Economics
Accomplishments (2)
George Bloom Award for Lifetime Service (professional)
2024 American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association
Outstanding Editorial Board Member Award (professional)
2003 Real Estate Economics
Education (2)
University of California, San Diego: PhD, Economics 1983
University of California, Riverside: BSc, Economics 1977
Affiliations (5)
- Journal of Regional Science : Editor
- Journal of Housing Economics : Editor
- Real Estate Economics : Editorial Board
- Journal of Urban Economics : Editorial Board
- Regional Science and Urban Economics : Editorial Board
Links (3)
Media Appearances (4)
Realtors settlement brings confusion, relief to Southern California’s real estate industry
The Orange County Register online
2024-03-17
Ed Coulson, director of the Center for Real Estate at UC Irvine, predicted the settlement could have a major impact on agent earnings and commission rates. People accepted 5-6% commission rates as if it were a rule, which it’s not, he said. … “I think the thing that is most important is we don’t know the impact on prices. There’s been a lot of speculation it would lower house prices, but that depends on the seller folding the commission into the house price. And I’m very uncertain that we know the extent to which that happens.”
Orange County named the hardest place to find an apartment in California
KCBS/KCAL online
2024-03-01
A new report shows that moving to Orange County is becoming nearly impossible. "A lot of that has to do with housing supply," UC Irvine professor Ed Coulson said. "The amount of new construction for apartments in Southern California — California in general — is pretty low. It's a state that puts a lot of barriers between vacant ground and new supply coming on to the market."
Why this UCI economist says the Fed misread rent inflation
The Orange County Register online
2023-11-26
Rent hikes soared into the double-digits in mid-2021, but the Federal Reserve didn’t start raising interest rates until a year later. Ed Coulson, director of the Center for Real Estate at UC Irvine, believes the Fed should have acted sooner. And because rent is now leveling off, he thinks the Fed should halt future interest rate hikes. … “The Fed’s policy is driven by their perceptions of inflation. And I argue with some co-authors that that perception is incorrect. And the reason it’s incorrect, ironically, has to do with the housing market,” says Coulson.
Crackdown on Airbnb Hosts Spurs Lawsuits, Losses, Longer Stays
Bloomberg online
2023-09-01
Month-to-month rentals aren’t new, but they’ve traditionally been at the lower end of the market with low-quality housing targeted at people with uncertain employment or low incomes, said [Professor] Edward Coulson, director of research at the University of California Irvine Center for Real Estate. That’s changing. “Transitioning into the medium-stay market means that you’re going to have units all across the quality spectrum that are available for month-to-month leases,” Coulson said.
Articles (4)
An Alternative Approach to Estimating Foreclosure and Short Sale Discounts
Journal of Urban Economics2023 Current research documents astonishingly large price discounts for foreclosures and short sales. However, such outsized estimates may largely be due to omitted variables bias. We propose an innovative methodology relying on appraisers’ ability to match properties along both observable and unobservable attributes when performing appraisals.
Housing Rents and Inflation Rates
Journal of Money, Credit and Banking2022 This paper develops a quality-adjusted measure of marginal housing rents using a monthly statistic of landlord net rental income. The marginal rent index (MRI) exhibits deflation during recessions and leads the official rent index by 7 months.
Distressed comps
Real Estate Economics2022 We consider the use and impact of distressed properties as comparables in residential appraisals. First, we describe the incidence of their use and their relative comparability; second, we estimate their impact on the appraisal value itself; and third, we consider their impact on the probability that the appraisal is below the proposed transaction price.
Job match and housing tenure
Real Estate Economics2022 Homeownership, though it brings both private and social benefits, entails substantial fixed costs. Standard personal financial advice suggests that homeownership should only be undertaken when one's job situation is stable and job movement is not likely in the near future.
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