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The New Zealand Treasury has released one of the most bizarre pieces of economic modelling I have ever seen: claiming that house price growth actually reduced inequality:
The research “surprisingly” found a 10% increase in house prices decreases wealth inequality across the population.
This is because the wealth of the wealthiest is mostly comprised of non-housing assets. For most other homeowners, housing makes up most their wealth (see graph below).
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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.