The Wise one whispers: I've heard "plumb the depths" but the shallows ???

The whole article is written somewhat tongue in cheek. The comparison with the CIA, among other clues, suggests to me that the author doesn't think too much of gapology.

Hah! We been looking for the wrong word:

From an editorial in the June 97 issue of Housing Policy and Prospects

Gapology

"Gapology" measures the difference between housing demand and supply and, therefore, attempts to capture the presence of inflationary pressures in the housing market. In the early nineties, for example, the view existed that prices were falling because of an excess supply of dwellings. In fact, the model allows us to make an estimate of the gap in terms of the owner-occupier housing stock. Since the house price equation is, in effect, derived by inverting a housing demand relationship, it can be re-inverted to obtain an estimate of the desired housing stock that households would wish to hold. This can be compared with the actual stock of dwellings.