News and Noise in the Housing Market

64 Pages Posted: 19 Jul 2016

Date Written: July 18, 2016

Abstract

Housing prices are subject to boom and bust episodes with long-lasting deviation from fundamentals. By considering a present value housing price model under noisy information, I study the macroeconomic implications of movements in housing prices related (news) and not related (noise) to future fundamentals. I provide empirical evidence of the sizable macroeconomic effects of news and noise shocks. Following Forni et al. (2014, 2016), I identify news and noise shocks through a non-standard VAR technique which exploits future information. In the US, news shocks are the main driver of the housing market at low frequencies, but in the short-medium horizon noise shocks explain a large share of the variability in housing prices, residential investment and GDP. Historically, many housing cycles are driven by noise. The empirical findings are consistent with a model à la Iacoviello which features a rental market. In this model, the usual optimal policy exercise concerns an augmented Taylor rule and a pro-cyclical loan-to-value ratio. I propose pro-cyclical property taxes as the most effective policy tool to deal with fluctuations originating from the housing market.

Keywords: housing market, non-fundamental VAR, noise, macro-prudential, property tax

JEL Classification: E30, E40, E50

Suggested Citation

Gazzani, Andrea Giovanni, News and Noise in the Housing Market (July 18, 2016). ECB Working Paper No. 1933, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2811037 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2811037

Andrea Giovanni Gazzani (Contact Author)

Bank of Italy ( email )

Via Nazionale 91
Rome, 00184
Italy

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
99
Abstract Views
879
Rank
482,743
PlumX Metrics