It is the story of two women, one from Ireland and one from America, who trade houses without ever having met.

"He talks about how housing doesn't lend itself to being a bubble because it's harder to trade houses and you have to live in a home," Ms. Bostjancic said.

Frank later traded houses with his brother Edwin to better accommodate the various sizes of their families.

As the White Arches case shows, this situation can mean instability as owners trade houses, overextend and move along.

Towards the end of her mother's life, Maureen would sometimes trade houses with Lewis, helping him take care of her mother, who died in 1951.

All that has created a large number of people who trade houses like stocks, moving into large estates when their careers rise and scaling back when their fortunes fall.

Needless to say, the president faced a barrage of hostility from the big banks, hedge funds, trading houses and derivatives junkies.

International Marketmakers Combination, one of Europe's leading derivatives trading houses.

Pejačevićs traded real estates, houses, cattle and cereals, doing business up to Austria and northern Italy.

Even as academic stars drawn by generous advances are turning to trade houses, prominent figures outside the academic world are looking to university or other academic presses.