Housing Market Dynamics: On the Contribution of Income Shocks and Credit Constraints

54 Pages Posted: 8 Nov 2001

See all articles by François Ortalo-Magné

François Ortalo-Magné

Wisconsin School of Business; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research)

Sven Rady

University of Bonn

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: October 2001

Abstract

This Paper presents a dynamic theory of housing market fluctuations. It develops a life-cycle model where households are heterogeneous with respect to income and preferences, and mortgage lending is restricted by a down-payment requirement. The market interaction of young credit-constrained households with older or richer unconstrained households generates the following results. (1) Current income of young credit-constrained households affects housing prices independently of aggregate income. (2) Housing prices and the number of housing transactions are positively correlated. (3) Housing prices over-react to income shocks. (4) A relaxation of the down-payment constraint triggers a boom-bust cycle. These results are consistent with patterns observed in the US and the UK.

Keywords: Housing prices and transactions, credit constraints, income shocks, financial liberalization, overlapping generations

JEL Classification: E32, G12, G21, R21

Suggested Citation

Ortalo-Magne, Francois and Rady, Sven, Housing Market Dynamics: On the Contribution of Income Shocks and Credit Constraints (October 2001). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=289672

Francois Ortalo-Magne (Contact Author)

Wisconsin School of Business ( email )

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CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research)

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HOME PAGE: http://www.CESifo.de

Sven Rady

University of Bonn ( email )

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Bonn, D-53012
Germany

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