The dividend pricing hypothesis, as applied to housing, argues that the total return to housing is properly measured as the sum of its rental and appreciation returns. This paper discusses specific properties of the relation between the two components of the total return using the estimates of these rates across US MASAs. Im-Pesaran-Shin panel unit root tests and augmented Dickey-Fuller regressions demonstrate that differences in asset appreciation returns are systematically associated with location and there is persistence in returns. These returns suggested that the difference in appreciation rates are predictable so that differences in appreciation rates have a component that is anticipated. The innovation in this paper is that shocks to total housing return are constructed and related to household consumption. Empirical tests following the Case-Quigley-Shiller framework examine the housing wealth effect on consumption, using total versus appreciation returns. The principal finding is that the effect of a housing return shock on consumption is much larger when it is measured as an innovation in the total return to housing, implying that the CAP rate component of return is important. The effect of a housing return shock on consumption is also larger than that of the stock market wealth shock.