Research
Housing Prices
Housing Prices and Behaviorial Traits
| "Has Sars Infected the Housing Market? Evidence from Hong Kong." | |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Publication | Journal of Urban Economics |
| Subject | Housing Prices |
| Keywords | SARS; Housing prices; Overreaction; Shocks; Epidemics |
| Citation | Wong, Grace, "Has SARS Infected the Property Market? Evidence from Hong Kong". Journal of Urban Economics, Vol. 63, pp. 74-95, 2008 |
| Abstract | This paper uses the 2003 Hong Kong Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic as a natural experiment to investigate how housing markets react to extreme events. An analysis of transaction volume suggests that the absence of price overreaction is likely to be related to housing market characteristics, including transaction costs, credit constraints and loss aversion. |
| "The Anatomy of a Housing Bubble" | |
| Date | October 2008 (under review) |
| Subject | Housing Prices |
| Keywords | Housing prices; Housing bubbles; Media; Politics |
| Abstract | This paper investigates the existence of housing bubbles through a within-city, panel analysis. The Hong Kong housing market experienced a real increase of over fifty percent between 1995 and 1997. Two phenomena during the price upswing stand out: a substantial cross-sectional variation in the price increase and strong co-movements of return and turnover rates. I posit and present evidence for two causes of the bubble: newspaper coverage and political uncertainties. |
| "A Comparison of International Residential Housing Risk Premia" (with Chris Julliard) | |
| Date | June 2006 |
| Subject | Housing Prices; Housing Risk Premium |
| Keywords | International housing markets; Housing risk premium; politics; zoning |
| Abstract | This paper contributes to this debate on the substantial risk-adjusted returns to real estate by first constructing a panel of housing risk premia for 13 OECD countries over a long sample period (1966:Q3 to 2004:Q4), and then exploring the relationship of these risk premia to changes in the financial market depth, equity market activities, property tax system, urbanization, zoning regulations and political orientation of the government. By comparing the experiences of housing markets in various developed countries, this paper adds to our understanding of what constitutes the real estate risk premium. |