A DYNAMIC MODEL OF HOUSING DEMAND: ESTIMATION AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS*

Using data from the PSID, we estimate a dynamic model of housing demand with nonconvex adjustment costs, credit constraints, and uncertainty about income and home prices. We simulate how consumer behavior responds to house price and income declines as well as tightening credit. In response to a negative home price shock, households early in the life cycle climb the housing ladder more quickly and invest more in housing assets due to the lower price. With a concurrent negative income shock, however, housing demand falls among young and middle aged households who stay in smaller homes rather than to trade up.     

Modelling the demand for housing over the life cycle

We model individual demand for housing over the life cycle, and show the aggregate implications of this behaviour. Individuals delay purchasing their first home when incomes are low or uncertain. Higher house prices lead households to downsize, rather than to stop being owners. Fixed costs (property transactions taxes) have important impacts on welfare (a wealth effect) and house purchase decisions (substitution effect). In aggregate, positive house price shocks lead to consumption booms among the old but falls in consumption for the young, and reduced housing demand; positive income shocks lead to consumption booms among the young and increased housing demand.     

Regional UK house price co-movement

ABSTRACT

Cyclical synchronization of home prices has important implications for monetary (and other) policies. Regional house price divergence, even over a business cycle, can inhibit labour mobility and prevent workers from moving to where they could add most to their own wages and overall growth. We study house price co-movement across the different UK regions with a method, that, unlike previously employed techniques, allows for time-varying estimates. We find first, that the UK exhibits more home price divergence compared to previously reported results for the US. Second, regions near London exhibit the most co-movement, and those further from London the most divergence. Third, London itself is in the ‘middle of the pack’ in terms of synchronization compared to other regions. This may reflect London’s status as a ‘global city’ and being the destination for housing demand from sources abroad. Lastly, segmentation has clearly been increasing, rather than decreasing in recent years.     

Liquidity constraints and housing prices: Theory and evidence from the VA Mortgage Program

This paper employs a simple intertemporal model to show that presence of liquidity constraints can depress the price of a durable good below its net present rental value, regardless of the overall supply elasticity. The existence of price effects implies that the relaxation of liquidity constraints is not Pareto improving, and may in fact be regressive. Historical evidence, which exploits the fact that a clearly identifiable group, war veterans, enjoyed the most favored access to mortgage credit after World War II, supports the model. The results suggest that more recent mortgage market innovations have served primarily to increase prices rather than home ownership rates, and that such innovations have the potential to exacerbate socioeconomic disparities in ownership rates.     

A model of housing and credit cycles with imperfect market knowledge

The paper presents a model of housing and credit cycles featuring distorted beliefs and comovement and mutual reinforcement between house price expectations and price developments via credit expansion/contraction. Positive (negative) development in house prices fuels optimism (pessimism) and credit expansion (contraction), which in turn boost (dampen) housing demand and house prices and reinforce agents׳ optimism (pessimism). Bayesian learning about house prices can endogenously generate self-reinforcing booms and busts in house prices and significantly strengthen the role of collateral constraints in aggregate fluctuations. The model can quantitatively account for the 2001–2008 U.S. boom-bust cycle in house prices and associated household debt and consumption dynamics. It also demonstrates that allowing for imperfect knowledge of agents, a higher leveraged economy is more prone to self-reinforcing fluctuations.     

瑞士个人产权住宅房屋低拥有率形成机制的深入研究

瑞士作为一个人均收入较高的发达国家,但国民购房的意识却非常淡漠,大部分人宁愿选择以租赁的方式解决居住问题。瑞士人拥有产权房屋的比例在西欧发达国家中所占比例最少,只占所有国民的34%,其中美国为62.5%,法国45%,本文通过对分布在瑞士5个州的1998户居民的抽样调查数据分析来探求该现象的合理解释。通过对众多相关要素的分析来对个人住房拥有率进行剖析,其中,特别对拥有和租赁的相对成本进行了重点研究,因为它与房屋售价、租赁价格与拥有后的使用成本密切相关,在上述影响因素中,产权人的使用成本与所得税政策、预期房屋价格上涨息息相关。本文也综合权衡了按揭贷款现行标准、租赁控制和各种政策对租赁房屋供给量所产生的影响,通过对税收、按揭标准、价格水平等因素进行一系列分析,估算出这些变量对房产拥有率的影响程度。本文得出以下结论:高房价——相对于租金对家庭收入来说是导致瑞士国民拥有住房比例较低的最重要影响因素。     

WHY HAS HOME OWNERSHIP FALLEN AMONG THE YOUNG?*

We document that home ownership of households with “heads” aged 25–44 years fell substantially between 1980 and 2000 and recovered only partially during the 2001–5 housing boom. The 1980–2000 decline in young home ownership occurred as improvements in mortgage opportunities seemingly made it easier to purchase a home. This article uses an equilibrium life‐cycle model calibrated to micro and macro evidence to understand these developments. A trend toward marrying later mechanically lowers young home ownership after 1980. We show that the large rise in earnings risk that occurred after 1980 can easily account for the remaining decline in young home ownership.     

A Life Cycle Analysis of Housing Affordability Options for First Home Owner-Occupiers in Australia

This paper presents a life cycle analysis of several policies for improving housing affordability for first home owner-occupiers in Australia: the First Home Owner Grant, housing equity partnerships and deposit loans. The analysis is by simulation of a housing tenure choice model in which a representative adult household makes a lifetime plan concerning the timing of the first home purchase, and the amount of housing and non-housing consumption in each period. An insight from the life cycle framework is that policies to improve housing affordability can have a life cycle timing effect on housing demand and house prices.     

HOUSE PRICES AND CONSUMPTION INEQUALITY

I characterize how house price shocks affect consumption inequality using a life cycle model of housing and nonhousing consumption with incomplete markets. I derive analytical expressions for the dynamics of inequalities and use these to analyze large house prices swings seen in the United Kingdom. I show that movements in consumption inequality were large, that they correspond with the theoretical predictions qualitatively, and that the model explains a large fraction of the movements quantitatively. I demonstrate the accuracy of this analysis using an extended model's full nonlinear solution. Finally, accounting for house price shocks alters estimates of labor–income risks using cross‐sectional data.     

Housing affordability in Macau: evidence and policy

This paper investigates a contemporary issue of housing affordability in Macau. A theoretical general-equilibrium model substantiates that government policies influence the house price and quantity differently in different scenarios. Data of earnings by industry and occupation are employed to disclose the variation of affordability among different groups over the past seven years. The year of 2004 was the golden age of homeownership. In 2011, the situation deteriorated and the market price cast huge pressure on home buyers. Unaffordable house prices coexist with many vacant units. Facing such a market failure, people of Macau continuously request government intervention. The core of curbing soaring house prices is to reduce profits in house flipping. Policy suggestions mainly fall into aspects of taxation and regulations of financial assistance for mortgage.     

住房价格、消费与中国货币政策最优选择:基于异质性房价预期的视角

在异质性房价预期和流动性约束条件下,本文构建了包括家庭消费决策、企业生产决策以及中央银行货币政策决策的理论模型。在此基础上,本文采用混合的RBC-VAR方法和1998年1季度至2010年3季度的数据模拟分析了住房价格、消费和货币政策选择之间的关系。结果表明:预期房价上涨的家庭越多,住房价格波动对消费波动的影响越大;贷款价值比越高,住房价格波动对消费波动的放大效应越强,但经验证据并没有支持这种放大效应;盯住住房价格的货币政策获益很少,其在减少产出波动的同时增加了通货膨胀波动。因此,中国人民银行应遏制房价偏离均衡的上涨,尤其是房价上涨预期,但货币政策不宜盯住住房价格。     

Progressive Tax-Based Tenure Choice: A study of Korean Housing Rentals

In Korea, there exists a unique form of housing rental called the “Chun-Sae” (C.S.). The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical model for tax-based tenure choice between ownership and rental, to develop a model to evaluate the C.S. price, and to seek an explanation for the currently observed anomaly (i.e., a wide disparity between the present value of C.S. and the market price of house). The model is also found to be useful in evaluating the effectiveness of capital gain tax on a second house. [210]     

Credit constraints,inelastic supply,and the housing boom

In this paper, I develop a dynamic general equilibrium model to study the sensitivity of house price changes with respect to credit constraints. I find that house prices are sensitive to changes of the down payment requirements if owner-occupied houses and rental houses are inelastically supplied. I then use the model to evaluate the housing boom during the 1995–2005 time period. I find that, under the assumption that owner-occupied housing and rental housing cannot be converted to each other, the increase in real household income and the decline in down payment requirements can explain a large fraction of the observed house price and price–rent ratio changes during the 1995–2005 time period. However, the model fails to match the interest rate changes during the 1995–2005 period.     

流动性约束与货币政策的资产价格效应

本文在新凯恩斯主义分析框架下,基于一个动态随机模型探讨了代理人消费流动性约束下的货币政策的资产价格效应,得到下列结论：资产价格波动通过财富效应影响代理人的消费。以利率为操作目标的最优货币政策应对股价、房价等资产价格波动做出反应,而其反应强度依赖于受流动性约束的代理人所占的比重。由于资产价格波动导致了流动性约束的时变性,最优利率规则对股价、房价等资产价格波动的最优权重也具有时变性。本文的实证分析表明,我国央行对房价和股价波动的利率调整具有时变性,以及此次金融危机爆发期间显现的这种时变性特征,与本文理论分析结果相吻合。     

FDI与房价

本文在存量模型基础上,构建了一个外资参与的房地产市场局部均衡模型,考察了外资对房价的影响。理论模型显示,需求环节外资流入将导致房价上涨,开发环节外资流入将导致房价下降。本文使用中国35个大中城市1996-2010年的房地产市场和FDI数据,发现开发环节外资（FDI）对中国大中城市房价具有显著负向影响。另一方面,FDI与房价的影响是非对称的,FDI对房价的影响大于房价对FDI的影响。因此,为抑制高房价,在对需求环节外资（“热钱”）严格限制下,应鼓励外资进入房地产开发。此外,收入是影响房价的最主要因素;城市化越快,房价越容易上涨。     

IMPERFECT INFORMATION AND DIFFERENCES IN HOME OWNERSHIP INVESTMENT

Abstract. We study the extent to which differences in home ownership investment are caused by differences in information known about the property. We study the advantages accruing to buyers who have complete information and who can pay less than the equilibrium price if sellers undervalue their properties. The reduction in home ownership investment can increase consumption or investment in other assets. We develop an empirical model to capture the gain to such buyers. We estimate this to have been 12.6%?27.6% of the equilibrium price of houses at maximum in the Tokyo metropolitan area during the 1980s.     

How do consumers respond to house price declines?

Movements in house prices and consumer spending are closely correlated in many developed nations. Much debate exists on whether this relationship is causal arising from either wealth effects or via borrowing constraints. This paper uses a unique survey question on consumer responses to house price falls to explain the relationship between house price movements and consumer spending among households in the United Kingdom. 30% of households report they would cut back consumption as a direct response to house price falls. Households who reported they were borrowing constrained were much more likely to report they would cut consumption.     

The effect of monetary policy on real house price growth in South Africa: A factor-augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) approach

This paper assesses the impact of monetary policy on real house price growth in South Africa using a factor-augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR), estimated using a large data set comprising of 246 quarterly series over the period 1980:01 to 2006:04. The results based on the impulse response functions indicate that, in general, house price inflation responds negatively to monetary policy shock, but the responses are heterogeneous across the middle-, luxury- and affordable-segments of the housing market. The luxury-, large-middle- and medium-middle-segments are found to respond much more than the small-middle- and the affordable-segments of the housing market. More importantly, we find no evidence of the home price puzzle, observed previously by other studies that analyzed house prices using small-scale models. We put this down to the benefit gained from using a large information set.     

Population Ageing and House Prices in Australia

This article assesses the effect of population ageing on housing consumption and house prices. Using two approaches, this article finds that the ageing of the population may cause average real house prices to be between 3 and 27 per cent lower than they otherwise would be over the period 2008–2050. The first approach is an econometric estimation of house prices for Australia over the period 1980–2008. The second approach is a simulation of a life cycle‐optimising model with representative overlapping generations.     

ENDOGENOUS SOURCES OF VOLATILITY IN HOUSING MARKETS: THE JOINT BUYER–SELLER PROBLEM

This article presents new empirical evidence that internal movement—selling one home and buying another—by existing homeowners within a metropolitan housing market is especially volatile and a substantial driver of fluctuations in transaction volume over the housing market cycle. We develop a search model that shows that the strong procyclicality of internal movement is driven by the cost of simultaneously holding two homes, which varies endogenously over the cycle. The estimated model shows that frictions related to this joint buyer–seller problem substantially amplify cyclical price volatility in housing markets.