Spatial Dependence and House Price Index Construction

Accurate estimation of prevailing metropolitan housing prices is important for both business and research investigations of housing and mortgage markets. This is typically done by constructing quality-adjusted house price indices from hedonic price regressions for given metropolitan areas. A major limitation of currently available indices is their insensitivity to the geographic location of dwellings within the metropolitan area. Indices are constructed based on models that do not incorporate the underlying spatial structure in housing data sets. In this article, we argue that spatial structure, especially spatial dependence latent in housing data sets, will affect the precision and accuracy of resulting price estimates. We illustrate the importance of spatial dependence in both the specification and estimation of hedonic price models. Assessments are made on the importance of spatial dependence both on parameter estimates and on the accuracy of resulting indices.     

Short Holds,the Distributions of First and Second Sales,and Bias in the Repeat-Sales Price Index

The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics -     

Sample Selection Bias and Repeat-Sales Index Estimates

Analysis of variations in house values among localities requires reliable house value indices. Gatzlaff and Haurin (1994) indicate that traditional hedonic house value index estimates, using only information from a sample of sold homes to estimate value movements for the entire housing stock, may be subject to substantial bias. This article extends previous work by adapting the censored sample procedure to the repeat-sales index estimation model. Using data from Dade County, Florida, a house value index constructed from a sample of homes selling more than once, rather than all houses in a locality, is found to be biased. The bias is shown to be highly correlated with changes in economic conditions.     

Creating Financial Cycles in China and Interaction with Business Cycles on the Chinese Economy

This study creates a Chinese financial cycle index to examine the lead-and-lag relations between business and financial cycles. We examine the macroeconomic performance when these cycles are in boom, bust, and other combinations. We have four interesting results. First, financial cycles occur less frequently than business cycles. Second, the upturn phase of a financial cycle is significantly longer than the downturn phase. Third, gross domestic product growth rates are at their lowest when the two cycles are in troughs and the highest when they reach their peaks. We find similar results for employment, inflation, and consumption rates. Fourth, financial cycles lead business cycles but not vice versa. Hence, policymakers should consider the financial system before bailing out the real economy, which alone is insufficient for the recovery of the macro economy.     

Hedging Housing Risk*

An unusually rich source of data on housing prices in Stockholm is used to analyze the investment implications of housing choices. This empirical analysis derives market-wide price and return series for housing investment during a 13-year period, and it also provides estimates of the individual-specific, idiosyncratic, variation in housing returns. Because the idiosyncratic component follows an autocorrelated process, the analysis of portfolio choice is dependent upon the holding period. We analyze the composition of household investment portfolios containing housing, common stocks, stocks in real estate holding companies, bonds, and t-bills. For short holding periods, the efficient portfolio contains essentially no housing. For longer periods, low-risk portfolios contain 15 to 50 percent housing. These results suggest that there are large potential gains from policies or institutions that would permit households to hedge their lumpy investments in housing. We estimate the potential value of hedges in reducing risk to households, yet yielding the same investment returns. The value is surprisingly large, especially to poorer homeowners.     

Hedging Housing Risk in London

This paper investigates the benefits of allowing households to compensate the portfolio distortion due to their housing consumption through investments in housing price derivatives. Focusing on the London market, we show that a major loss from over-investment in housing is that households are forced to hold a very risky portfolio. However, the strong performance of the London housing market means that little is lost in terms of expected returns. Even households with limited wealth are better off owning their home rather than renting and investing in financial assets, as long as they are willing to face the financial risk involved. In this context, access to housing price derivatives would benefit most poor homeowners looking to limit their risk exposure. It would also benefit wealthier investors looking for the high returns provided by housing investments without the costs of direct ownership of properties. Comparisons with French, Swedish and U.S. data provide a broader perspective on our findings.     

Redux模型与人民币升值压力研究

本文对浮动汇率制下的Redux模型进行了修改,以使其可以分析固定汇率问题,并依据修改后的Redux模型对人民币升值压力进行了研究,得出了引致人民币升值的微观经济因素,并分析了在固定汇率制和浮动汇率制下外汇储备与福利的关系,最后从微观基础角度提出了一些缓解人民币升值压力的对策.     

人民币升值、股价上涨和热钱流入关系的实证研究

本文基于CLR(1996)模型和多重套利模型(2007)这两个重要理论模型来解释国内人民币升值、股票价格上涨和热钱流入之间存在的互动关系。并结合样本数据通过Granger因果关系对人民币升值、股票价格上涨和热钱流入的关系进行了实证检验。结果显示:人民币升值和上证综合指数上涨是热钱流入中国大陆的原因,但热钱流入不是人民币升值和上证综合指数上涨的原因。对理论模型解释和实证检验结果之间出现的异同。本文做出分析和解释。最后给出政策建议。     

人民币升值预期的经济效应

在量化界定人民币升值预期的基础上,通过对有关数据的Granger因果检验和相关分析发现,人民币升值预期对中国经济的不利影响主要体现在吸引国际投机性资本流入、加速外汇储备累积、加剧流动性过剩及其冲销压力、推动股价上涨等金融方面,对一般商品、劳务价格及房地产价格没有影响,对经济增长有一定的间接促进作用,且在一定程度上抑制贸易顺差增长,从而缓解内外经济失衡。     

基于VAR模型对CPI与房地产价格关系的实证分析

随着经济的不断发展,物价波动与房地产价格之间的关系逐渐成为关注的焦点。本文选取我国2006年1月至2010年12月的CPI和房屋销售价格指数月度数据,建立VAR模型。通过格兰杰因果检验发现:房地产价格和物价波动之间存在单向的因果关系。通过脉冲响应函数进行分析,表明房屋销售价格指数对CPI有着正向的作用。方差分解的结果说明在长期CPI的变动很大程度是由房屋销售价格指数引起的,房地产市场价格波动受自身因素的影响较大。     

缓解人民币升值压力的思考——巴拉萨-萨缪尔森效应与人民币汇率升值

2005年人民币汇率制度改革以来,人民币升值压力和预期始终没有消除,造成我国宏观经济困境。根据巴拉萨-萨缪尔森效应,随着我国经济的快速追赶,人民币实际汇率有长期升值趋势,而当我国可贸易品部门的单位劳动成本相对下降,这一趋势就通过名义汇率升值压力体现。巴拉萨-萨缪尔森效应提示我们可以通过一般物价水平调整缓解升值压力,即采用温和的结构性通胀策略降低升值预期。这对于稳定我国宏观经济,消除外汇储备泡沫,转变经济结构具有积极作用。     

Spatiotemporal Autoregressive Models of Neighborhood Effects

Using 70,822 observations on housing prices from 1969 to 1991 from Fairfax County Virginia, this article demonstrates the substantial benefits obtained by modeling the spatial as well as the temporal dependence of the data. Specifically, the spatiotemporal autoregression with twelve variables reduced median absolute error by 37.35% relative to an indicator-based model with twenty-six variables. One-step ahead forecasts also document the improved performance of the proposed spatiotemporal model. In addition, the article illustrates techniques for rapidly computing the estimates and shows how to compute indices for any location.     

A Bayesian Approach to the Construction and Comparison of Alternative House Price Indices

Several repeat-sales models have been advanced over the years for estimating real estate price indices. This article proposes a general model which incorporates earlier works as special cases and compares the alternative repeat-sales models using posterior odds ratios as criteria. While the existing literature estimates the real estate indices from the sampling point of view, in this article indices are constructed and then compared using a Bayesian approach. In general, the two-error term models outperform the one-error models. The model with a nontemporal component proposed by Goetzmann and Spiegel is found to be superior in three out of four cities. There is a significant discrepancy among the returns and indices obtained from different models.     

Appraisals,Transaction Incentives,and Smoothing

This article is structured around three principal objectives. The first is to determine whether any incentives for appraisals support an underlying purchase offer, which may be termed a transaction bias. Appraisals that are lower than purchase prices could involve additional cost for justification and thus undermine the transaction. The second objective is to test whether appraisal data are smoothed or exhibit less volatility than purchase data. The article compares the volatility of separate appraisal and purchase data. Given separate appraisal and purchase time series, the third objective is to derive the implied optimal appraisal updating rule.The model is applied to appraisal and purchase price indices for 3.7 million repeat transactions on mortgages bought by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by using monthly data from January 1975 to December 1993. The estimation procedure uses generalized autoregressive conditioned heteroskedastic (GARCH) analysis to take account of persistence in means and volatility in the house price time series. The article draws three principal conclusions. First, appraisals are systematically higher than purchase data, a first-moment differential. Second, appraisal smoothing does not occur generally. Third, the appraisal updating rule for the United States appears to involve error correction whereby underappraisals from pervious periods are eventually adjusted.     

住房公积金政策对我国房地产市场的影响--基于SVAR模型的实证研究

本文利用1999年二季度至2010年一季度的数据,选取个人住房公积金贷款利率、全国房屋销售价格和全国房屋租赁价格作为分析变量,构建结构向量自回归模型,运用脉冲响应和方差分解方法,就住房公积金贷款利率对我国房价和房租的影响进行实证分析。结果显示,住房公积金政策对我国房价和房租的影响主要侧重于中长期效应,短期效应并不明显,基于此,提出政策建议。     

Optimal Macroprudential Policies and House Prices in Korea

This article investigates the impacts of the macroprudential policy of limitation on credit growth in housing market on Korean economy to find empirical and theoretical implications. Empirical results based on VAR models show that macroprudential policies like LTV and DTI in Korea have significant and persistent effect on real household credit and real house price. This article further addresses implications of optimal macroprudential and monetary policy in Korea by employing a standard DSGE model. The results suggest that the time-varying macroprudential policy responding to the borrower’s debt to income ratio is most effective in stabilizing household debt among the macroprudential policy rules considered, but produces a moderate downturn of the economy.     

Taxation and House-Price Uncertainty: Some Empirical Estimates

Purchasing a home involves a large and localized investment that leaves many families exposed to volatile house prices and at risk of losing their home equity. Price movements are typically not synchronized across cities, suggesting the potential for efficiency gains through risk sharing across households. In this paper, we consider the possibility of risk sharing through capital gains taxation. When full loss offset is permitted, potential gains and losses are reduced at the household level by taxation and distributed nationally, thereby allowing the tax authority to diversify away the local risks associated with owner-occupied housing. We simulate the effect of a capital gains tax with full loss offset on tenure choice and housing demand using micro-level data from the American Housing Survey, spanning ten years, from 1985 to 1995, and measures of time varying risk and return.     

Political Environment and Chinese OFDI Under RMB Appreciation: A Panel Data Analysis

We examine the role of political environment (PE) in determining Chinese multinational corporations’ (MNCs) investment decisions considering the RenMinBi (RMB) exchange rate (ER) movement. System generalized method of moments, feasible generalized least squares, and fixed effect estimations are employed to conduct a panel data analysis of 92 countries for the period of 2003–2015. Our empirical results reveal that Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) responds negatively to ER risk and political risks individually. After introducing the joint effect of PE and ER movement, the results suggest that Chinese OFDI’s risk preference to PE is reversed when RMB is appreciating. We argue that Chinese firms are still risk-avert when considering investing abroad. The empirical result shed light on better understating of Chinese OFDI patterns and motivations.     

Evaluating the Usefulness of the American Housing Survey for Creating House Price Indices

The American Housing Survey (AHS) is a valuable source of information on houses and occupants over time. The AHS has several advantages over sales data for use in the creation of price indices: it is readily available, has frequent observations over time and space, has data from the late 1970s through the mid-1990s, includes houses that do not sell, as well as those that do, and has information on the occupants. The drawbacks include: a time lag between the interview and the release of the data, data suppression issues, owner-stated house values, and a lack of neighborhood information. In this study, we use the metropolitan version of the AHS, which has been supplemented with the original survey data as well as Census tract data for three cities over 14 years to examine whether the AHS can be used to create indices. Indices are estimated using hedonic, repeat valuation, and hybrid techniques, overcoming some of the problems inherent in the estimation of indices. We find that the data-suppression issues and the owner-stated house values are not problematic. The biggest drawback of the AHS is its lack of objective information on neighborhood quality.     

Appraisal Quality and Residential Mortgage Default: Evidence from Alaska

We empirically examine the effect of appraisal quality on subsequent mortgage loan performance using data from the high volatility housing market of Alaska in the 1980s. We develop measures of appraisal quality by computing the residual between a hedonic estimate of house value using available information from other appraisals compared to actual ex ante appraised value. We then estimate proportional hazard models of mortgage default and find that several measures of appraisal quality, particularly appraised value in excess of hedonic estimates, are significantly related to default risk. Using valuations subsequent to loan default, we are also able to evaluate how well house price indices perform in terms of estimating current loan-to-value and offer some additional evidence on the controversy over the role of net equity versus trigger events as determinants of mortgage default. We also show that defaults are related to ex ante measures of housing market conditions, with additional implications for underwriting policies and the current industry trend away from traditional appraisal and toward automated valuation.