Shiller: “Housing Not a Great Investement”

Robert Shiller, the Yale University professor and bubble-spotter extraordinaire who also was the co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index was on Bloomberg the other day, continuing his recent one-man campaign to try to curb the enthusiasm of the nation’s many housing market bulls.

When asked what sort of returns one should expect to make on housing in inflation adjusted terms over the long-term, Shiller promptly replied “Zero” and provided the following elaboration:

Housing traditionally is not viewed as a great investment. It takes maintenance, it depreciates, it goes out of style. All of those are problems. And there’s technical progress in housing. So, the new ones are better. So, why is it considered an investment? That was a fad. That was an idea that took hold in the early-2000s and I don’t expect it to come back.

This follows an op-ed not long ago titled A New Housing Boom? Don’t Count on It in the NY Times.