Rising home equity is a foundational source of wealth for most middle-class American homeowners. But the opioid crisis has the potential to negatively impact housing prices, threatening access to credit that homeowners can then use to buy assets or start businesses. Dr. Dragana Cvijanovic´ (Cornell University) visited Culverhouse on Friday, October 6 to present findings from her study about the opioid crisis and real estate prices.
Cvijanovic´ and her collaborators, Cláudia Custódio (Imperial College London) and Moritz Wiedemann (Imperial College London) found that better anti-opioid laws raise in-county housing prices due to fewer mortgage delinquencies and lower vacancy rates, as well as increase in home improvement loans and population inflow.
In other words, better laws against opioids mean more wealth in local consumer real estate as an asset class.