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A University of Virginia professor says housing costs, whether from rising rents, mortgage burdens or falling home values, can affect whether people vote on Election Day. Ben McCartney, an assistant professor of commerce at UVA, and his co-authors studied past housing market downturns and found that those hit hardest financially were most likely to stay home on Election Day. 

A UVA professor’s research aims to illuminate how federal policy that supports affordable homeownership intersects with civic engagement via the ballot box, as housing affordability and access remain top concerns for voters in Virginia and across America. A new study titled “Mortgage Refinancing and Political Participation” explored how remedies in the aftermath of 2008’s recession correlates to surges in people heading to the polls.

Nationally, the number of people selling homes outnumber those buying them, home values are declining and mortgage rates are high. On the surface, these look a lot like the conditions that preceded the 2008 housing crisis, but economists say things are different now....“It was very easy to get financing on a home, and it was very easy, arguably, to get too much financing on a home,” said Mike Gallmeyer, a professor at UVA's McIntire School of Commerce. “It was a situation where the market had to behave in a particular way that they would be able to continue to make their house payments.”

Buy or rent? City or county? Roommates or solo? These are just a few of the questions that those looking to move to Charlottesville, Albemarle and the surrounding counties have to ask as they navigate the often-rocky real estate market...Ben McCartney, an Assistant Professor of Commerce at the University of Virginia, told Cville Right Now real estate markets are often much more nuanced than they appear. 

When disasters strike, timing is critical – not just for forecasts, but for knowing who’s most at risk and how to help. Timely information can mean the difference between safety and tragedy, especially for vulnerable groups often overlooked in emergency plans. Jonathan Colmer, an associate professor of economics and public policy at UVA, is urging authorities and first responders to identify those most at risk from natural disasters to better prepare, writing in a recent piece published in Nature. 

Politics not only make for strange bedfellows, but also for bad neighbors, apparently. People are more likely to sell their homes and move out of a neighborhood if new neighbors whose political views are opposite of theirs move in, according to research by UVA economists. The study, published in The Journal of Finance, uses information gleaned from North Carolina public records. It found residents were 4% more likely to sell their property and move within two years if their new neighbors have opposite political views, compared to residents whose new neighbors share their politics.