This study describes the organization and operation of the postwar Canadian housing and residential mortgage markets and investigates the role of and scope for government policy in these markets.

There are three main sections. The first investigates the behavious of the housing market and structural relationships within it, and quatifies these relationships through the development of an econometric model. The single and multiple dwelling sectors are analysed separately, and considerable attention is paid to the factors affecting both housing demand and supply. The housing model is then used to explain the long-run and cyclical variations in residential construction activity on a period-by-period basis.

The residential mortgage market is examined in the second section. The main participants are described and their mortgage investment behavious is analysed in terms of both their portfolio investment decisions and their net inflows of funds. The factors influencing the supply of mortgage credit are integrated with demand factors to explain the determination of mortgage rates, and simulations are conducted to indicate the interest sensitivity of mortgage flows for the major lending institutions.

The third section forcuses upon government oplicy in the housing and mortgage markets using the models previously developed. The major government programs are analysed, and simulation experiments run to quantify their effects. The book concludes with a discussion of the trade-off between policies directed towards housing objectives and those directed toward general economic stability.

This work should be helpful to students of Canadian housing and mortgage markets and to economists who are interested in more than cursory knowledge of the area. Policy-makers should also find it useful because it provides an in-depth analysis of past housing and mortgage market policy, and describes the framework and market structure within which future policies will operate.

Lawrence Berk Smith is Professor of Economies in the Department of Political Economy at the University of Toronto. Her has served as a consultant to a number of government corporations and ministries, including the Research Department of Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and the Research Department of the Bank of Canada in connection with its econometric model.

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