The 2007 financial crisis and the UK residential housing market: Did the relationship between interest rates and house prices change?

This paper investigates the impact of the 2007 financial crisis on the relationship between real mortgage interest rates and real house prices. It applies a dynamic conditional correlation based methodology that uses fractionally differenced data along with controls for structural breaks and non-interest-rate related factors that influence house prices. The key finding made is that the financial crisis had a long-term structural impact on the monetary transmission relationship. For example, we find that the mean conditional correlation between house prices in England and Wales and the three-year fixed mortgage rate rose by 6.6 percentage points. Similarly, the mean correlation between prices and the standard variable mortgage rate increased 6.4 percentage points to 54%. These findings suggest to us that interest-rate-based monetary policy still has an important role to play in the housing market.     

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.     

金融冲击与房地产市场波动*——一个宏观分析框架及中国的经验证据

本文从总量宏观分析的视角,提出了金融变量与房地产市场的“总体冲击—传导机制”假说,据此用中国的数据构建金融状况指数（包含房价的FCI1和不包含房价的FCI2）,再对金融状况指数（FCI1和FCI2）与房地产指数做实证分析。研究发现,在资产价格中房价比股价更能反映一国的金融状况;在引入金融状况指数的金融变量中,利率与房价的相关性最强;房价和利率对总产出的影响周期更长。国房景气指数、房地产投资指数和房价指数对FCI冲击的响应显著,并存在不同的表现。由于房价对居民财富、金融状况和宏观经济的影响显著,货币政策理应干预房价,必须精准把握干预的时机和干预的力度以及注重多种货币政策工具的有效搭配使用。     

全球金融危机下我国金融脆弱性问题的研究

在以房地产泡沫破灭为导火索的美国次贷危机引发的全球金融危机的背景下,吸收国内外对金融危机的最新研究成果并结合我国的实际情况,考虑房价上涨可能是我国金融脆弱性的潜在因素,并选取13个核心指标运用多变量因子分析法对我国近11年来金融脆弱性问题进行定量分析,研究认为宏观经济运行环境和金融监控是影响我国金融脆弱性的主要方面,其中房价上涨、货币增长率是影响的重要因素;我国金融脆弱性整体情况有明显的上升趋势,2007年脆弱程度最高。     

Is the relationship between monetary policy and house prices asymmetric across bull and bear markets in South Africa? Evidence from a Markov-switching vector autoregressive model

This paper examines asymmetries in the impact of monetary policy on the middle segment of the South African housing market from 1966:M2 to 2011:M12. We use Markov-switching vector autoregressive (MS-VAR) model in which parameters change according to the phase of the housing cycle. The results suggest that monetary policy is not neutral as house price growth decreases substantially with a contractionary monetary policy. We find that the impact of monetary policy is larger in bear regime than in bull regime; indicating the role of information asymmetry in reinforcing the financial constraint of economic agents. As expected, monetary policy reaction to a positive house price shock is found to be stronger in the bull regime. This suggests that the central bank reacts more in bull regime in order to prevent potential crisis related to the subsequent bust in house prices bubbles which are more prominent in bull markets. These results substantiate important asymmetries in the dynamics of house prices in relation to monetary policy, vindicating the advantages of generating regime dependent impulse response functions.     

THE ROLE OF HOUSE PRICES IN THE MONETARY TRANSMISSION MECHANISM ACROSS EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

This paper provides a discussion of the ‘housing market’ channels of the monetary transmission mechanism and offers some evidence of institutional differences in the European housing and mortgage markets. Using a number of Vector Autoregressive models, estimated individually for nine European countries over the pre‐EMU period, we find that house prices are significantly affected by interest rate shocks. The relative role of these interest‐rate‐induced fluctuations in house prices for private consumption is then investigated. We show that house prices may enhance the effects of interest rate shocks on consumer spending in those economies where housing and mortgage markets are relatively more developed and competitive.     

利润率下降、信贷扩张与房价波动——来自跨国面板数据的经验证据

非金融部门利润率的下降是导致信用扩张的内生性原因,信用游离于实体经济之外、单纯在金融系统内循环是房价上涨和波动的主要推动力。信贷扩张和房价波动相互影响,但信贷扩张对房价的影响远远大于房价上涨对信贷扩张的影响;信贷扩张对房价的放大机制即加速器效应在国际房地产市场普遍存在,加速器效应是房价顺周期性变化的潜在原因,但房价上涨引起信贷进一步扩张的加速器效应不存在。以美日为代表的发达国家的实体经济利润率下降、信用扩张、房价泡沫的累积、直至危机爆发的历史经验值得深思。     

次贷危机与我国住房信贷风险防范

美国不完善的住房保障体系、宽松的房贷政策以及创新的房贷产品,使市场积累了巨大风险,而利率上升和房市降温引爆了次贷危机.我国住房信贷市场存在类似于次贷危机的风险形成机制.公共住房供需矛盾突出,住房信贷市场准入标准宽松,提供按揭贷款的银行缺乏合理的避险手段,长期内利率波动和住房产权流动性不足,使我国住房信贷市场风险不断积累.防范我国住房信贷风险必须未雨绸缪.     

房价波动、调控政策立场估计及其影响效应研究--基于1998-2014年数据的实证分析

调控政策对房价的反应、立场和影响效应是政府政策设计的重要依据,2007年底金融危机爆发后,调控政策和房价波动都发生了显著变化。文章以2008年为界,构建了三个房价和政策变量的月度时间序列样本：1998-2007年、2008-2014年和1998-2014年,在此基础上,对2008年前后调控政策的反应、立场和影响效应进行了实证分析。结果表明：(1)实际贷款利率和货币供应量在2008年前后对目标变量的反应是交错变化的,货币供应量对房价的反应与假定相反,货币政策并未对房价做出充分反应,而财政和土地政策表现出了较好的反应结果。(2)货币供应量对房价波动的影响最大,是房价持续上涨的重要原因,2008年以来,固定资产投资的影响非常显著,脉冲响应分析发现利率只能在短期内对房价产生负向影响,除土地政策外,货币和财政政策皆会在长期内对房价产生稳定影响。文章的研究为推进房价政策调控和房地产市场健康稳定发展提供了可靠的经验支持。     

Estimating fundamental and affordable housing price trends: a study based on Singapore

Policy-makers often impose some cooling measures on the housing market when housing prices rise fast. Such policies yield limited success if housing prices are driven up by fundamentals. Estimating a fundamental price trend from observed price data is a challenge. We present an empirical methodology to separate housing price trends into fundamental and affordable components. Deviating from the common practice, we replace current income by a long-run income measure constructed from household incomes at different quantiles. This income measure provides a more suitable basis for constructing affordable house price levels. It also serves as a better fundamental variable, especially for segmented housing markets like that of Singapore. These price trends provide policy-makers with useful information to intervene into property markets to achieve desirable outcomes. Analysing Singapore data using this methodology shows the magnitudes of the price gaps between actual and fundamental prices and how housing affordability fluctuates over price cycles.     

Has Canadian house price growth been excessive?

The dramatic rise in the ratio of Canada's average house price to average rent has led to speculation that there is a bubble in the Canadian housing market. Others have argued, however, that the currently high level of house prices may be rationalized by the low cost of financing, given the decline in interest rates over the last two decades. In this article, we assess these arguments through the lens of a simple asset pricing model applied to city‐level data. We quantify the extent to which excess growth in Canadian house prices depends on the nature of the current regime governing real interest rates, expectations of rent growth in different cities and variations in property taxes.     

The futures price of a commodity in fixed supply

This letter shows that in a general equilibrium model of homogeneous population with production risk, the futures price of a commodity which is in fixed supply is always below the expected futures spot price (e.g., normal backwardation). It also shows that the difference between the futures price and the expected spot price increases as the representative individual's risk aversion rises. An important application of this model is to the housing market since houses are in fixed supply in the short run and buying a house is like holding a long position in a forward contract. Therefore, if population is homogeneous, houses are not a good consumption hedge and the prices of houses are below their expected rental prices.     

Interest Rates,Local Housing Markets and House Price Over‐reactions

Understanding the effects of interest rates on city‐specific house price to household income ratios is important for managing local housing markets. In particular, there is concern that keeping interest rates at sufficiently low levels can distort the relationship between local house prices and fundamentals. We use house price to income ratios across capital cities in Australia to investigate this issue and show that there is a national interest rate ‘transition’ point below which housing dynamics can become unstable. This result lends support to the presence of a duration‐dependent threshold effect (hitherto mainly explored in theoretical models).     

Explaining UK house price inflation 1971–89

An econometric analysis of UK house price inflation and changes in residential construction is presented for the period 1971–89, paying particular attention to the supply side of the housing market. The results of this analysis are used to examine the contributions of the various factors to the nominal rate of house price inflation. While the results confirm the importance of real disposable income in determining house prices, they indicate that supply variables may be of greater importance than interest rates in this respect. There are close similarities between the three housing booms of the 1970s and 1980s.     

Convergence in US house prices

This paper analyses the convergence of US house prices. Our results confirm the existence of some degree of segmentation in the US housing market. We also provide robust evidence that the bursting of the housing price bubble has altered this market, observing different results when the sample includes information posterior to 2010. However, we appreciate different effects depending on the geographical level of disaggregation that is employed.     

Can Anchoring and Loss Aversion Explain the Predictability of Housing Prices?

We offer an explanation of why changes in house price are predictable. We consider a housing market with loss‐averse sellers and anchoring buyers in a dynamic setting. We show that when both cognitive biases are present, changes in house prices are predicted by price dispersion and trade volume. Using a sample of housing transactions in Hong Kong from 1992 to 2006, we find that price dispersion and transaction volume are, indeed, powerful predictors of housing return. For both in and out of sample, the two variables predict as well as conventional predictors such as the real interest rate and real stock return.     

The risk of falling house prices in Italy

This paper shows that Italian house market is less exposed to price shocks than the American one. Variations in the house price index in real terms have been studied along with the affordability ratio and the relation between house prices and rent levels for the period 1995–2004 in Italian provinces. Comparison with US data reveals greater overpricing in the US during the expansion phase (2000–2004). Although a speculative bubble in all US metropolitan areas considered does not emerge, US financial and economic structural factors make the US real estate sector more exposed to price shocks. To test the compatibility of Italian house prices with fundamentals an econometric model is designed to analyze the provincial house prices from 1995 to 2003.     

House price dynamics: Evidence from Beijing

To study the house price dynamics in China, this paper extends the traditional life-cycle model by incorporating land supply, regime shifts and government regulation factors. The models are estimated with an error correction framework using quarterly data from 2000 to 2007 in Beijing. The conclusions are as follows. (1) There exits a stable co-integration relationship between house price and fundamentals; land supply and financial regimes are also important determinants of long-run equilibrium house prices. (2) Short-run dynamics depend on changes of fundamentals and the adjustment process of housing market. Land supply has a significant impact on house price fluctuations while demand factors such as user costs, income and residential mortgage loan have greater influences. The adjustment speed of real house prices to the long-run equilibrium has been reduced significantly since 2005 which means exogenous shocks can cause prolonged deviation of real house prices from the equilibrium level.     

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.     

A Novel Housing Price Misalignment Indicator for Germany

From 2014 until present, housing prices in Germany have been rising faster than consumer prices in all quarters except one, raising concerns about an excessive overheating of the housing market. To assess the vulnerability of the German housing market to a future realignment of prices or even a housing bust, this paper develops a housing price misalignment indicator that is composed of seven indicators, which are commonly associated with the fundamental value of residential property. An empirical application to the most recent data suggests that the German housing market exhibits an overvaluation of approximately 11%, where interest rate risk and a relatively advanced stage of the housing cycle are identified as the main factors fueling these imbalances, while a rather solid debt‐servicing capacity mitigates these imbalances since end‐2009.