Home Sales Research Articles

BRITISH IMPORTS OF MANUFACTURES AND THE COMMON MARKET *

This paper assesses the impact of Britain's accession to the EEC on her imports of manufactures. It argues that account must be taken of the substitutability of imports for home production, and that price effects must be modelled consistently. It applies Deaton and Muellbauer's “Almost Ideal Demand System” to annual data on UK home sales and imports from ten sources. It identifies considerable trade creation, but little or no trade diversion.

Costs and Pricing of Home Brokerage Services

This paper explores a simple economic search model, and various brokerage cost assumptions, to derive brokerage pricing implications for three dimensions of the home transaction: (1) level of home price, (2) new relative to existing home sales, and (3) co‐op relative to non‐co‐op sales. The model incorporates time‐on‐market (the price‐time tradeoff) as an important element in home brokerage (search)It is argued that relative search cost differences imply that commission rates will be lower (1) on sales of higher‐priced homes, (2) on sales of new relative to existing homes and (3) on non‐co‐op relative to co‐op sales. A main contribution of the paper is the presentation of considerable supporting evidence showing variation in actual home brokerage commission rates according to these three variables.

Redlining

The residential mortgage activity of financial institutions in metropolitan Boston was analyzed to identify and assess patterns of disinvestment. Data were obtained from most state-chartered institutions and larger national banks on the geographic breakdown of their mortgage portfolios, recent mortgage activities, and deposits. Additional information on home sales, population and housing characteristics, and homeowner interviews were used. The measures of disinvestment were (1) mortgage-to-deposit ratios, (2) number of bank mortgage applications compared to home sales, and (3) bank-financed home sales to total home sales. Results indicate that (1) the mortgage dollars invested relative to the savings dollars deposited by residents were disproportionately low in most urban neighborhoods; (2) the proportion of bank-financed home sales was substantially higher in suburban than in urban areas; and (3) bank home mortgage lending is disproportionately lower in minority and racially changing neighborhoods. These analytical techniques and results are compared with those of major redlining studies in other metropolitan areas.

The effects of nonresidential land uses on the prices of adjacent housing: Some estimates of proximity effects

This paper reports the results of 16 market experiments designed to produce measures of the effects of nonresidential land uses on the prices of nearby dwellings. Each experiment consists of a sample of home sales in a homogeneous neighborhood located near a single nonresidential land use, e.g., industry, commercial, high-density dwellings, and highways. The data consist of price, physical characteristics of the dwelling, distance from the nonresidential use, and the date of sale for each transaction. Hedonic price indices are estimated and the significance of the distance effects assessed. No systematic relationship between nonresidential land use per se and housing prices is found.

AN ANALYSIS OF SOME CAUSES OF INTERSTATE DIFFERENCES IN CONSUMER REGULATIONS

There are large differences among the states in the degree to which consumer products are regulated. This paper examines the determinants of these state differences in four regulatory areas: credit, prescription drug advertising, mobile home sales, and door to door sales. Costs and benefits expected to result to particular groups from regulation are analyzed and used to explain whether or not particular states enact particular regulations. The results of this paper suggest that both consumer and industry groups play a role in determining regulatory patterns.

An Analysis of Black Occupancy of Mobile Homes

Abstract Mobile homes represent one potential source of new housing for low-income populations. Current data show that this type of housing has become in creasingly attractive to households within the $5,000–10,000 income range. Given that black family incomes are generally lower and housing conditions poorer compared to whites, we would expect that levels of black occupancy of mobile homes would be relatively high. This research examines these levels of black occupancy in mobile homes for twelve states and, taking into account important social, economic, and demographic variables affecting the probability of living in a mobile home, generates an expected level of occupancy for blacks. Actual levels of occupancy are found to range from 4 to 45 percent of these expected levels, indicating a severe under representation of black households in this form of low income housing. Two general explanations for this under representation are discussed: differences in housing preferences between blacks and whites and racial discrimination in the sale, financing, and location of mobile homes.

Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition

A class of differentiated products is completely described by a vector of objectively measured characteristics. Observed product prices and the specific amounts of characteristics associated with each good define a set of implicit or "hedonic" prices. A theory of hedonic prices is formulated as a problem in the economics of spatial equilibrium in which the entire set of implicit prices guides both consumer and producer locational decisions in characteristics space. Buyer and seller choices, as well as the meaning and nature of market equilibrium, are analyzed. Empirical implications for hedonic price regressions and index number construction are pointed out.

The Short-Run Pricing Policies of Some British Engineering Exporters

An investigation of the pricing policies of British exporters is of particular interest at the present time when devaluation has been used as a means of enabling them to improve their competitiveness. Although pricing policies have received some attention in recent research into the response of exports to changes in domestic demand pressure,(1) and the relative profitability of home and export sale,(2) no specific examination of pricing policies has been published since the current period of international monetary uncertainties began in 191.(3)

US hardware rolls into Europe

Jolted by a slump in home sales, US computer companies thrust deeper into Europe. Collaboration among European firms is seen as one way of meeting the threat. Meanwhile ICL's Sir John Wall (opposite) is out to kill the industry's mystique. Richard Brooks reports.

Federal Taxation: Employer's Reimbursement of Employee's Loss on Sale of Home Treated as Compensation

Federal Taxation: Employer's Reimbursement of Employee's Loss on Sale of Home Treated as Compensation