Most US households invest a substantial fraction of their wealth in an individual asset: their family home. This paper studies the empirical properties of idiosyncratic house price risk using a novel micro-dataset of house sales and remodeling permits from the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco. Unlike what is usually assumed in the literature, I find that idiosyncratic housing risk does not scale with time. Moreover, the fraction of capital gains variance determined by the idiosyncratic component decreases over a house holding period. I analyze the effects of idiosyncratic risk on household welfare, using a quantitative portfolio model. Exposure to idiosyncratic shocks has substantial effects on the trade-off between owning and renting, especially for short holding periods. (Presentations: Western Finance Association 2017)

Presentations: American Finance Association 2017

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Presentations: EABCN Conference 2016, Western Finance Association 2015, Monetary Policy and Financial Markets Conference at FRB San Francisco 2014