Housing and Mortgage Markets: An OECD Perspective

Abstract

This chapter examines the linkages between housing systems and the business cycle in the countries of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It focuses on how differences in the degree of resilience to economic shocks can be affected by the structural and institutional characteristics of housing and mortgage markets. First, there is a brief account of the uneven resilience of the OECD countries to common economic shocks. Second, some stylized facts concerning the interaction between housing markets and the business cycle are examined, attending in particular to how closely home prices and output are associated over the cycle and whether countries differ in this regard. The third section is concerned with the mechanisms linking home prices with consumption, and the wider economy. Finally, there is a comment on the extent to which structural policy factors help account for home-price variability. Controlled Vocabulary Terms business cycle; Housing; Macroeconomics