Owner-occupied Housing Research Articles

One Step Further to Unsustainability: Effects of the International Crisis on Antalya Housing Market

One of the cities affected most by the war between Ukraine and Russia has undoubtedly been Antalya, which hosted many Russian and Ukrainian tourists for years. After the war broke out, those who came to this city, known by both countries’ citizens who were not subject to any restrictions, were no longer tourists but settled there and became long-term residents. The increase in sales and rentals to foreigners has affected the owner-occupied and rental housing markets in many ways. These sales and increased demand have directly caused the prices of housing units to rise and the number of rental housing units to become insufficient. This paper highlights the process and changes in the housing market in Antalya during the international crisis between Russia and Ukraine. The main findings revealed that the increasing number and prices of housing for sale in the central districts negatively affect the rental sector and limited housing provision in the face of an increase in recorded population during the periods examined. These unregulated and unsustainable housing markets result in various risks and consequences, especially for residing households, many occupational classes and development scenarios of the city. To overcome these problems, regulations on legal and policy perspectives and considering a foreign residency policy together with housing policy in Türkiye are highlighted.

Inflation: What we have learned and what we need to know

We discuss the lessons that economic forecasters have learned about inflation since the Covid shock. First, physical shortages—e.g., in the auto sector—can push up goods prices much more dramatically than most forecasters expected following several decades near price stability. Second, imbalances in the rental housing market can sharply increase inflation and keep it high, especially in economies such as the US where rents are used to impute owner-occupied housing costs. Third, the jobs-workers gap can be a better measure of labor market balance than the unemployment rate or the employment/population ratio.Originally prepared for the Spring 2024 NBER conference on “Inflation in the Covid era and beyond”.

The middleman dilemma: exploring the relationship between formal ethics and ethics in practice among real estate agents in Sweden

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between formal ethics and ethics in practice in the empirical context of real estate agents (REAs) working in the residential housing market, including owner-occupied houses and owner-occupied apartments, in Sweden. The paper investigates problems with the Swedish middleman model of real estate agency with regard to the acceptance among REAs of borderline professional behavior.Design/methodology/approachWe report on a survey distributed to all Swedish licensed residential REAs to investigate their attitudes towards eight scenarios displaying borderline ethical behavior. Firstly, the means of each scenario were calculated, investigating signs of distance between formal ethics and ethics in practice. Secondly, logistic regressions were run for each scenario separately, thereby investigating factors affecting misconduct among REAs.FindingsThe empirical results show a clear difference between formal ethics and ethics in practice and also illustrate that some scenarios of borderline ethical behavior are creating greater problems for the REAs.Practical implicationsIn Sweden, the seller is the principal, assigning the REA to sell a house or apartment, but the regulation is clear on the role of the licensed REA as responsible for promoting an informed and fair sales process where the buyer is safe to act without their own representative. Our study contributes with information to policymakers on possible areas for the development of the middleman model.Originality/valueThe paper is the first to empirically investigate the middleman model of a Swedish real estate agency in relation to the business ethics of the agents. The use of scenarios in close relation to the everyday working context of REAs as tests of ethics of practice is also of original methodological value to investigate possible diversions of professionals from national regulations.

Inheriting housing inequality: Parental homeownership and place of origin as key factors for homeownership in Japanese metropolitan areas

The term “housing ladder” refers to the phenomenon of people moving from one housing type to another according to changing demands of different life stages. This phenomenon is observed in many countries and is known as the Jutaku Sugoroku Paradigm in the Japanese context. This study aims to clarify whether adult children's access to homeownership might be affected by their parents' homeownership and their place of origin. Questionnaire Data from a survey across Japan's two largest metropolitan areas, Tokyo and Osaka, were analyzed by combining crosstabulations and a binomial logit model. The results revealed that individuals are more likely to attain homeownership if they come from a metropolitan area and if their home of origin is an owner-occupied house. These findings suggest that housing inequality is being passed on to the next generation by parents' homeownership status and residential location. Japanese housing policies that promote private ownership of housing may reinforce these inequalities. The study concludes that Japan experiences the same intergenerational transmission of housing inequality due to homeownership as other countries, whereas place of origin was an additional factor for homeownership in the Japanese context.

Affordability of Owner-Occupied Housing across US Cities

This paper compares the affordability of owner-occupied housing across US cities. We apply a new method for imputing the rental value of owner-occupied housing developed in Diamond and Diamond (2024) that accounts for unobserved house quality. On average, the rental value of owner-occupied housing is 3.2 percent above that implied by standard hedonic methods. Hedonic methods overestimate rental value of owner-occupied housing in the most regulated cities and sharply underestimate it in the least regulated cities. We provide suggestive evidence that this heterogeneity reflects misallocation, where high-quality housing stock cannot be built in the most desirable parts of regulated cities.

Not so Simple: Examining the Gendered Nature of Intimate Partner Assault Victimizations.

Although prior research has established a relationship between neighborhood structure and intimate partner violence (IPV), much of this literature focuses on serious IPV, despite the fact that less serious forms of IPV comprise the majority of IPV instances. Further, women are far more likely to experience all types of IPV victimization relative to men, especially simple assault, yet the relative importance of neighborhood structure across gradations of IPV and victim sex is relatively unexplored. We use data from Los Angeles, CA, and disaggregate IPV assaults across victim sex to examine whether neighborhood factors have differential effects on simple and aggravated IPV. We find differential effects of neighborhood structure by victim sex, especially for simple assault. Most notably, we find that neighborhood racial composition has significantly greater effects on females relative to male victims of simple IPV assault, while residential stability is protective of women more so than men. Only the percent of vacant or owner-occupied housing was specific to male simple IPV victimization. This suggests that neighborhood-based interventions should differ depending on the type of IPV being targeted.

Living in public rental housing is healthier than private rental housing a 9-year cohort study from Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study

Housing tenure is an important aspect to determine health. However, even though renters tend to have more socioeconomic disadvantages than homeowners, mortality risk between private and public renters compared with homeowners remains unclear. Japanese public rented housing, such as the Urban Renaissance Agency, has been developed for supplying an adequate living environment since 1950s. This study aimed to examine the mortality risk among older Japanese residents living in private and public rented houses compared with those living in owner-occupied houses using 9-year follow-up data. This study drew upon a 9-year follow-up of participants in the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, a population-based cohort study of Japanese independent adults aged ≥ 65 years. Mortality from 2010 to 2019 was analyzed for 44,007 respondents. Housing tenure was defined by a questionnaire. Cox regression models were used for calculating the hazard ratio for mortality. Bonferroni correction was used to account for multiple testing between rental houses. Overall, 10,638 deaths occurred during the follow-up period. Compared with housing owners, all rental housing groups had a significantly higher risk of mortality. Among renters, participants who lived in public rental housing had the lowest risk of mortality even after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, health status, social status, and environmental status. Multiple testing among renters with Bonferroni correction showed that public renters had 0.80 times (95% CI 0.72–0.89) lower mortality risk than private renters. Although Japanese older adults living in public rental housing had a higher mortality risk than homeowners, this risk was lower than that among private renters. A positive neighborhood environment based on well-planned urban development may have contributed to this result. The results suggest that planned urban development lowers the risk of mortality in older renters in Japan.

Inflationsberechnung: Zinspolitik der EZB wird als Inflationstreiber statistisch nicht erfasst

Abstract After ten consecutive increases in the prime rate by the European Central Bank’s (ECB), the question arises: What significance do these measures have, both indirectly for the interest rates increased at all value-added levels on the corporate side, and for households? While the prices for rents, being the largest component, are factored into inflation calculations, the dramatically increased interest rates for real estate loans – specifically for owner-occupied housing – are not considered at all. In this article, an extension of the calculation scheme is demonstrated to make transparent the direct effect of the prime rate increase on real estate owners’ expenses.

Drivers of Tree Canopy Loss in a Mid-Sized Growing City: Case Study in Portland, OR (USA)

The benefits of the urban tree and tree canopy (UTC) are increasingly crucial in addressing urban sustainability. Yet, increasingly evident from earlier research is the distributional inequities of UTC and active efforts to expand tree plantings. Less is known about the dynamics of UTC loss over time and location. This study aims to understand the dynamics of UTC change, especially canopy loss, and to investigate the drivers of the loss. This study draws on a high–resolution dataset of an urban canopy in Portland, Oregon, USA, assessing changes in UTC from 2014 to 2020. By integrating demographic, biophysical, and policy data with UTC information, we use a spatial autoregressive model to identify the drivers of UTC loss. The results reveal an unexpected spatial distribution of UTC change: less gain in the neighborhoods with the least UTC, and greater loss in the neighborhoods with moderate UTC. This study identifies four primary drivers of UTC loss: socioeconomic characteristics, urban form, activities on trees, and residential status. Factors such as population density, race, and income have an impact on canopy loss, as well as the building footprint and the number of multifamily housing units; residential statuses, such as the proportion of owner-occupied housing and residential stability, impact canopy loss.

Housing Tenure in the Nordic Countries – A Comparison of Rights and Obligations

The necessity of housing tenure and ‘variation’ in tenures for a well-functioning housing market is often emphasized. This paper examines and compares different forms of housing tenure in four Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The Bundle of Rights theory has been used as a theoretical framework to clarify the content of the chosen tenures. Generally, the results suggest that owner-occupied housing possesses the most extensive rights; tenures based on indirect ownership also include far-reaching rights in many regards, while rented housing is the most restricted. However, significant differences can be identified between the different countries within these categories.

Modeling post-disaster recovery: Accounting for rental and multi-family housing

Post-disaster housing recovery models increase our understanding of recovery dynamics, vulnerable populations, and how people are affected by the direct losses that disasters create. Past recovery models have focused on single-family owner-occupied housing, while empirical evidence shows that rental units and multi-family housing are disadvantaged in post-disaster recovery. To fill this gap, this article presents an agent-based housing recovery model that includes the four common type–tenure combinations of single- and multi-family owner- and renter-occupied housing. The proposed model accounts for the different recovery processes, emphasizing funding sources available to each type–tenure. The outputs of our model include the timing of financing and recovery at building resolution across a community. We demonstrate the model with a case study of Alameda, California, recovering from a simulated M7.0 earthquake on the Hayward fault. The processes in the model replicate higher non-recovery of multi-family housing than single-family housing, as observed in past disasters, and a heavy reliance of single-family renter-occupied units on Small Business Administration funding, which is expected due to low earthquake insurance penetration. The simulation results indicate that multi-family housing would have the highest portion of unmet need remaining; however, some buildings with unmet needs are anticipated to be able to obtain a large portion of their funding. The remaining portion may be filled using personal financing or may be overcome with downsizing or downgrades. Multi-family housing would also benefit the most from Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR). This benefit is a result of modeling the financing sources, that CDBG-DR is available, and that many multi-family buildings do not qualify for other sources. Communities’ allocation of public funding is important for housing recovery. Our model can help inform and compare potential financing policies to allocate public funds.

Racial Differences in the Total Rate of Return on Owner-Occupied Housing

Racial Differences in the Total Rate of Return on Owner-Occupied Housing

Transition and Integration Effects in the Baltic Housing Markets: The Dipasquale-Wheaton Approach

Abstract This paper analyses housing market developments in the Baltic States using a price-rent (PR) adjusted version of the DiPasquale-Wheaton (DPW) model as a frame of reference. Relating housing markets in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to the boom, the bust and the recovery after the financial crisis in 2007/2008, the paper discusses the interrelations between the different parts of the housing market system. Transition involves structural shifts, and the links between rental housing, owner-occupied housing and the housing construction industry might differ in the Baltics compared to mature economies, differences originating especially on the supply side of housing markets. As the Baltics are integrating their economies with the EU, housing markets may also be affected by the integration process, a process that includes factors both on the financial side and on the real side of the economy.

Owner-occupied Housing Costs, Policy Communication, and Inflation Expectations

Owner-occupied Housing Costs, Policy Communication, and Inflation Expectations

Age-related depreciation of older properties

ABSTRACT The value of a property tends to decrease over time as it ages, resulting in a reduced ability to generate the same value. Property depreciation is a multifaceted concept that encompasses both technical and economic aspects. The purpose of the study is to evaluate whether additional information on the quality of older single-family homes affected the depreciation factor. We collected specific data from property owners on the frequency of various maintenance and reinvestment operations, both internal and external, such as the roof, foundation, heating, and kitchen. Our database consists of nearly 10,000 owner-occupied single-family houses in Sweden sold between the beginning of 2021 and 2022 that are over 30 years old. Our results show, as expected, that the depreciation per year for older properties is lower. However, for older properties that have been renovated, the age-related price effect is an appreciation. This is especially true for older properties built before 1940. Renovating and maintaining older properties can mitigate the age-related decline in prices and should be taken into account when valuing properties, especially properties older than 80 years.

Interpreting the Changing Meaning of the Peri-Urban Holiday House: The Complex and Paradoxical Nature of Housing Financialisation

ABSTRACT In recent studies of housing financialisation, a “financial paradox” has been identified in which owner-occupied houses are simultaneously places of ontological security and financial investment. This paradox influences the way owner-occupiers interpret their primary and holiday houses, particularly if the latter are located in sought after high amenity locations. In this paper, we argue that, faced with rapidly increasing residential property prices, many long-term owners reluctantly reconceptualise their understanding of their holiday house as both a recreational and financial asset. Our study uses in-depth interviews with owners of holiday houses on Waiheke Island, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand to identify how they are interpreting and managing the normalisation of this paradox. The island is historically popular for holiday houses and is currently experiencing substantial property price increases. It is therefore an ideal place to study the complex and paradoxical nature of housing financialisation and thus potential biases in the housing market.

Quantitative analysis of a wealth tax for the United States: Exclusions and expenditures

We use a quantitative overlapping generations model with endogenous tax avoidance and rich tax detail to analyze two major issues in the design of a wealth tax for the United States: the provision of exclusions for certain housing and business equity, and the range of government expenditure options allowed for by additional revenues. First, we find that while the exclusion for owner-occupied housing results in quantitatively insignificant macroeconomic and budgetary effects, the exclusion for privately-held noncorporate business equity results in a shift of productive activity towards that sector which can significantly undermine the revenue-raising potential of the tax. Second, we find that the macroeconomic effects of a given wealth tax regime can vary in magnitudes of contraction or expansion depending on the type of expenditures that are assumed to be financed by the additional revenues.

Access to homeownership in decline—rising housing inequalities for young people in the neoliberal housing market of Tallinn

The current housing affordability crisis, driven mainly by the financialization of housing and the government's retrenchment of social policies and provision of affordable housing, have affected growing inequalities in access to housing. The crises have hit young people especially hard. The recent trends call for systematic studies on the mechanisms generating such intergenerational inequality, considering the specifics of the prevailing housing regimes. Housing affordability in Tallinn has decreased due to fast-growing housing prices, as a result of an ultra-liberal housing regime, exemplified by housing financialization, capital accumulation, low level of governmental interventions and an overall increase in social inequalities. Based on EU-SILC data, it is shown how the recent trends during the decade between 2010 and 2020 have negatively impacted young people's access to homeownership—access has been greatly reduced for young cohorts, and it has become more differentiated, based on the socio-economic and labor market performance of households, as well as intergenerational transfers. Young households are increasingly residing in private rental dwellings, and many still rely on parental housing until their 30s. Rental housing, as compared to homeownership, has fewer advantages compared to homeownership—it brings no capital gains and is less secure, and rental stock tends to be located unevenly across urban space and to be in slightly worse condition compared to owner-occupied housing. This positions young people in an unfavorable position in the perspective of their housing career, and this can have severe consequences on their social inclusion.

Association of Childhood and Midlife Neighborhood Socioeconomic Position With Cognitive Decline

Early-life socioeconomic adversity may be associated with poor cognitive health over the life course. To examine the association of childhood and midlife neighborhood socioeconomic position (nSEP) with cognitive decline. This cohort study included 5711 men and women enrolled in the community-based Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study with repeated cognitive data measured over a median 27.0 years (IQR, 26.0-27.9 years) (1990-2019). Statistical analysis was performed from December 2022 through March 2023. Residence addresses for ARIC Study cohort participants were obtained at midlife (1990-1993) and as recalled addresses at 10 years of age (childhood). A composite nSEP z score was created as a sum of z scores for US Census-based measures of median household income; median value of owner-occupied housing units; percentage of households receiving interest, dividend, or net rental income; percentage of adults with a high school degree; percentage of adults with a college degree; and percentage of adults in professional, managerial, or executive occupations. Childhood nSEP and midlife nSEP were modeled as continuous measures and discretized into tertiles. A factor score for global cognition was derived from a battery of cognitive tests administered at 5 in-person visits from baseline to 2019. The rate of cognitive decline from 50 to 90 years of age was calculated by fitting mixed-effects linear regression models with age as the time scale and adjusted for race, sex, birth decade, educational level, and presence of the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele. Among 5711 ARIC Study participants (mean [SD] baseline age, 55.1 [4.7] years; 3372 women [59.0%]; and 1313 Black participants [23.0%]), the median rate of cognitive decline was -0.33 SDs (IQR, -0.49 to -0.20 SDs) per decade. In adjusted analyses, each 1-SD-higher childhood nSEP score was associated with a slower (β, -9.2%; 95% CI, -12.1% to -6.4%) rate of cognitive decline relative to the sample median. A comparable association was observed when comparing the highest tertile with the lowest tertile of childhood nSEP (β, -17.7%; 95% CI, -24.1% to -11.3%). Midlife nSEP was not associated with the rate of cognitive decline. In this cohort study of contextual factors associated with cognitive decline, childhood nSEP was inversely associated with trajectories of cognitive function throughout adulthood.

Grunderwerbsteuer: Finanzministerium plant Möglichkeit zur Abschaffung

Abstract The Federal Ministry of Finance wants to allow German Federal States to lower the property transfer tax rates for owner-occupied housing. There is evidence that such tax heavily distorts the housing market. However, since the tax is an important source of revenue for the Federal States, it remains to be seen whether these will cut tax rates.