The Great Revaluation: COVID-19 and the Structural Transformation of the American Housing Market

This chapter summarizes the tectonic shifts that took place in the U.S. housing market between 2019 and 2025. I explore the roles of remote work and lower interest rates in the dramatic rise of aggregate house prices, the"flattening" of the urban bidrent curve in the cross-section of locations, and the fiscal implications of the "Urban Doom Loop." I discuss how mortgage lock-in effects may have stabilized house prices in the wake of more recent increases in interest rates, at the expense of residential mobility.