Brad DeLong seems pleased that I believe in and act upon the equity premium and home bias puzzles. Now he wants to know more:

But has he mortgaged his house to the gills and invested the proceeds in international equities? Enquiring minds want to know!

That’s how most people would describe it – on net we’ve paid back less than zero on our house since we bought it five years ago, and we’re going to continue in that direction. But we’re not truly “to the gills.” Given the real estate price rise in the DC area in last five years, there’s no way my ever-prudent wife would have allowed this. I think she’d say there’s a high fixed cost of losing our house, and she’d probably be right.