Urban housing with discrete structures

Competitive equilibrium in an urban housing model with structures that cannot be readily aggregated or subdivided is analyzed in this paper. The price and quantity of services forthcoming from each dwelling occupied by a household is determined by the equality of competitive supply and demand. A stack algorithm is then developed to ensure households are assigned to dwellings so that they would not prefer to live in any other dwelling with an equilibrium price less than the one they would pay if they lived there. Using the Urban Institute Housing Model as an example, the results of this algorithm are compared with those of the algorithm developed by de Leeuw and Struyk (D-S). The stack algorithm yields greater price discounting of existing dwellings below the price of a new dwelling than does the D-S algorithm and, thus, a greater potential for housing prices to be increased by a demand subsidy such as a housing allowance.     

Urban housing density and the price of housing services

Theoretical research has shown that urban housing density, defined as housing services per unit of land, is an increasing function of the price of housing services. However, this concept of density hides as well as provides information because housing services per unit of land equals the product of housing services per dwelling unit and dwelling units per unit of land. This paper proves that housing density, defined as dwelling units per unit of land, can vary either directly or inversely with the price of housing services.     

The economics of urban yard space: An “implicit-market” model for housing attributes

A theoretical housing model is developed embodying the approach of the recent hedonic price literature. Instead of focusing on a scalar “housing service” consumption measure, the model portrays housing as a commodity with two attributes: floor space and yard space. Developers react to a consumer bid-rent function, which relates dwelling rent to floor space, yard space, and location, in choosing the profit-maximizing characteristics of their housing complexes. The spatial behavior of the developer's choice variables is investigated (an interesting question is whether yards are larger farther from the urban center), and a comparative static analysis of the housing market equilibrium is presented.     

A probabilistic approach to the structure of rental housing markets

A probabilistic view of the structure of urban housing markets is developed. The demand side is based on aggregate probabilistic demand functions derived from microbehavioral random utility theory. The supply side examines the short-run pricing of the housing stock by developing “asking rent theory,” which explains how a housing supplier must find the optimal rent that maximizes expected revenue. Next, concepts of aggregate market clearing and market equilibrium are defined. Finally, a two-submarket model with specific assumptions regarding the representation of demand and the nature of market signaling is examined in detail and is given a graphical illustration. In closing, directions for extending the probabilistic approach both within and beyond urban analysis are pointed out. All analysis in this paper is for a stationary urban economy, with the housing stock assumed fixed.     

城市发展与住房意愿支付价格

以城市在岗职工的平均劳动收入水平和反映城市生活质量的各类宜居性指标建立了中国35个主要城市的城市发展与住房需求关系的模型,并以此估计了城市住房意愿支付价格。实证结果表明,城市在岗职工的平均劳动收入水平和以各类宜居性指标反映的城市生活质量可以解释70%左右住房价格的城市间差异。虽然城市劳动收入对住房意愿支付价格的影响仍然很大,但随着社会经济的发展,中国主要城市的生活质量对住房意愿支付价格增长的贡献有逐步增大的趋势。     

The demand for housing in developing countries: The case of Korea

This paper presents the results of an analysis of urban housing demand for Korea taking into account the most recent findings of housing demand analysis concerning specification and aggregation biases. In order to obtain correctly specified demand functions, a procedure based on a model of the housing market originally proposed by Muth is used. Drawing on the detailed land information available in Korea, this procedure permits the calculation of an individual price per unit of housing services for each household. The results show conclusively that both the income and price elasticity of the demand for housing services in Korea are comparable to those found in the United States: the income elasticity is smaller than one and the price elasticity is negative and smaller than one in absolute value. Given the number of countries found within the per capita income range between Korea ($700) and the United States ($7800), the finding that these two countries have comparable demand elasticities is of major significance: in the absence of good national estimates, the order of magnitudes found here would be used for other country analyses.     

我国城市移民的住房需求分析

农民工是构成城市移民的主要成分,尽管住房并不是移民支出的主要部分,大多数农民工在进城后选择低端房屋,但家庭聚居方式让移民对住房的要求逐步提高。计算发现,我国每年新增约200万-250万城市移民,即使按照廉租住房标准给他们提供住房,每年的需求增量也多达2600万平方米。因此,解决城市移民的住房问题对经济社会协调发展具有重要意义。     

Estimating the demand for housing characteristics: A survey and critique

Many economists criticize the concept of the composite commodity'of housing that forms the basis of modern urban economics. As a result, much empirical work has been produced that attempts to estimate the household demand for housing and locational characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to take stock of the literature. The theoretical foundations of the literature and the econometric procedures employed are analyzed and critiqued. In addition, the empirical results are examined in order to identify any patterns that exist. The principal conclusion of this survey is that the theoretical basis is sound, but the econometric applications leave much to be desired. One consequence is that the literature has produced few empirical regularities. Another is that more studies using better estimation procedures and better data are needed before it can be safely argued that the composite commodity concept is replaced by the characteristics approach.     

Location and housing demand

William Alonso's model of the demand for housing and location in the monocentric city is one of two pre-eminent models of its type. The purpose of this article is to provide the detailed analysis and the comparative statics of the Alonso model. The complexity of the analysis is seen to derive from the nature of the constraint, which is nonlinear and has slopes which vary with income. A new result is that housing and closeness can be inferior even when they are taste normal. The empirical direct variation of income with distance is explained, consistent with the finding that income increase has indeterminate effects on location and housing demand. The Alonso specification is shown to be superior to others.     

Public policy toward low income housing and filtering in housing markets

The article presents a model of a housing market in which dwelling units are constructed for relatively high income families and then gradually become available to lower income groups as they depreciate in quality and price. Assumptions are made concerning values for the parameters of the model, and the model is then solved using numerical methods. Alternative possible policies for increasing the housing consumption of the poor are simulated in the model.     

国外住房保障制度比较研究

分析了美国、英国、德国、日本、韩国、新加坡等国家城市中低收入者住房保障体系的主要特色。重点分析了美国从供需两方面进行补贴的保障模式、英国的混合产权补贴方式、日本的住房保障三大支柱,同时,还比较了德国、韩国和新加坡三国住房保障体系的差异。概括出这些国家城市中低收入者住房保障体系的主要特征和存在的矛盾,即从补贴卖方到补贴买方的转变,根据发展阶段确定需要补贴的卖方以及以需求补贴为主导的特色补贴模式。最后,对国外城市中低收入者住房保障体系进行了评价,指出了公房建设与国民经济发展、政府与民间团体以及政府与城市中低收入者之间存在的三大矛盾。     

Economics of residential crowding in developing countries

In an attempt to eliminate residential crowding, most countries pursue the policy objective of providing one dwelling unit per household. However, we know little about the demand for various dimensions of housing space which affects the levels of crowding. This paper analyzes the nature of demand for residential space and multiple occupancy in order to identify the major determinants of crowding. The result indicates that to a great extent crowding is explained by economic factors and that the current policy approach to elimination of crowding, which emphasizes one dwelling per household, is not likely to be effective.     

Cross-sectional estimation of a simultaneous model of tenure choice and housing services demand

In this paper we analyze the demand for housing services, integrating into a single analysis a systematic treatment of several important conceptual and empirical issues. Our three major objectives are to (1) evaluate the empirical importance of the simultaneity between the tenure choice and consumption level decisions; (2) analyze the relationship between household type and housing demand; and (3) present new estimates of the parameters of housing demand which are based on detailed microdata. In the process, we derive and estimate overall income and price demand elasticities which incorporate the impacts of income and price on both the tenure choice and consumption level decisions.     

The short-run comparative statics of a rental housing market

This paper examines the short-run effects of changes in exogenous variables (including several government policies) on the schedule relating market equilibrium rent to quality level. The basic model differs from Sweeney (Econometrica, 42, 147–167 (1974)) by use of a bid rent closed city approach rather than a supply and demand (partially) open city approach. The mathematics changes completely, the analytics simplify, and the results change somewhat. Housing is treated as a durable quality differentiated good, but frictional forces and the multidimensionality of the housing package are ignored. The exception is an extension to a monocentric city context, so that housing units vary in both quality and location.     

Real and nominal interest rates and the demand for housing

This paper is an empirical study of the relationship between inflation expectations and the demand for housing. The major findings are that housing demand is a function of both expected inflation and the real interest rate but that demand cannot be specified as a function of the nominal rate. It is also shown that expected inflation has a larger impact on those households that are likely to be constrained by capital market imperfections.     

Property taxation and the demand for housing: An econometric analysis

There is disagreement among economists regarding the effect of a local increase in property taxation on the housing market. In defining the price of housing services studies of the demand for housing have treated the property tax exclusively as an excise tax on housing consumption. Two recent theoretical developments suggest this is a misrepresentation of the tax. One theory holds that the excise effects of property taxation may be shifted backward to the factors employed in the production of housing. The other theory concludes that the property tax is not an excise, but rather serves as an efficient price for local public services. To investigate these hypotheses, data from the Annual Housing Survey were employed to estimate a housing demand model which included the net effective property tax rate among the set of independent variables. In addition to revealing the property tax-housing demand relationship, the model provides more reliable estimates of income and price elasticities by eliminating specification errors found in previous studies. Results indicate that the property tax reduces the housing consumption of central city homeowners, but does not distort the suburban housing market.     

Dynamics of the housing market

This paper deals with the derivation of the rent values of the standing stock of the housing market with a continuous vintage approach, under malleable stock and homogeneous population assumptions, and under dynamic conditions: population and income growth, technological obsolesence, and a continuous upward shift and elasticity change in the supply function. The core of the model is a Volterra nonlinear integral equation of the second kind, and results are shown in relation to existence, uniqueness and stability. Finally, a spatial-dynamic model is specified by a Fredholm-Volterra nonlinear integral equation, framing the analysis of the housing filtering process with the Burgess-Hoyt concept of directional growth in urban development.     

Simultaneity in the market for housing characteristics

The nature of simultaneity in the markets for housing characteristics is examined. Simultaneity is found to arise in the implicit markets for individual characteristics because of the presence of nonlinearity in the market (hedonic) price function for housing. However, this simultaneity is not the kind discussed by S. Rosen [J. Political Econ. 82, 34–55 (1974)] between firm supplies and household demands. As a result, the Rosen suggestion of identifying demand with firm supply shifters is inappropriate. Among the alternative approaches to identification, the most desirable involve use of data over two or more markets in which residence for a given household is exogenous to the choice of housing.     

Disequilibrium models of single family housing prices and transactions: The case of Chicago, 1972–1976

This paper reports a first application of Fair-Jaffee type short-side models of disequilibrium to the intraurban single family housing market in which the housing stock is divided into distinct geographic community areas. Data on single family dwelling transactions and prices in the city of Chicago between 1972–1976 is used to estimate four versions of the Fair-Jaffee type model. The approach allows the simultaneous estimation of the price elasticity of the demand for and offer of existing single family dwellings. The demand elasticity estimate of about −0.5 agrees with other estimates in the literature obtained from equilibrium models. The price elasticity of offer has not been previously estimated for single family dwellings. It is found to be around 2.1. Elasticities are also computed with respect to the mortgage interest rate and the intensity of transactions in the dwelling's community area. The disequilibrium models appear substantially superior to equilibrium specifications. Simulations with the estimated models predict that, in the absence of external shocks, transaction prices and quantities stabilize within 2 years.