Why Has House Price Dispersion Gone Up?

S-Tier
Journal: Review of Economic Studies
Year: 2010
Volume: 77
Issue: 4
Pages: 1567-1606

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We set up and solve a spatial, dynamic equilibrium model of the housing market based on two main assumptions: households with heterogenous abilities flow in and out metropolitan areas in response to local wage shocks, and the housing supply cannot adjust instantly because of regulatory constraints. In our equilibrium, house prices compensate for cross-sectional productivity differences. We increase productivity dispersion in the calibrated model in order to match the 30-year increase in cross-sectional wage dispersion that we document based on metropolitan-level data. We show that the model quantitatively matches the observed 30-year increase in dispersion of house prices across US metropolitan areas. It is consistent with several other features of the cross-sectional distribution of house prices and wages. Copyright , Wiley-Blackwell.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:oup:restud:v:77:y:2010:i:4:p:1567-1606
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-29