This paper, a case study, aims to consider whether the income ratio and rental ratio tracks the formation of residential housing price spikes and their collapse. The ratios are…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper, a case study, aims to consider whether the income ratio and rental ratio tracks the formation of residential housing price spikes and their collapse. The ratios are measuring the risk associated with house price stability. They may signal whether a real estate investor should consider purchasing real property, continue holding it or consider selling it. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (Dallas Fed) calculates and publishes income ratios for Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries to measure “irrational exuberance,” which is a measure of housing price risk for a given country's housing market. The USA is a member of the organization. The income ratio idea is being repurposed to act as a buy/sell signal for real estate investors.
Design/methodology/approach
The income ratio calculated by the Dallas Fed and this case study's ratio were date-stamped and graphed to determine whether the 2006–2008 housing “bubble and burst” could be visually detected. An ordinary least squares regression with the data transformed into logs and a regression with structural data breaks for the years 1990 through 2019 were modeled using the independent variables income ratio, rent ratio and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index. The descriptive statistics show a gradual increase in the ratios prior to exposure to an unexpected, exogenous financial shock, which took several months to grow and collapse. The regression analysis with breaks indicates that the income ratio can predict changes in housing prices using a lead of 2 months.
Findings
The gradual increases in the ratios with predetermine limits set by the real estate investor may trigger a sell decision when a specified rate is reached for the ratios even when housing prices are still rising. The independent variables were significant, but the rent ratio had the correct sign only with the regression with time breaks model was used. The housing spike using the Dallas Fed's income ratio and this study's income ratio indicated that the housing boom and collapse occurred rapidly. The boom does not appear to be a continuous housing price increase followed by a sudden price drop when ratio analysis is used. The income ratio is significant through time, but the rental ratio and Consumer Sentiment Index are insignificant for multiple-time breaks.
Research limitations/implications
Investors should consider the relative prices of residential housing in a neighborhood when purchasing a property coupled with income and rental ratio trends that are taking place in the local market. High relative income ratios may signal that when an unexpected adverse event occurs the housing market may enter a state of crisis. The relative housing prices to income ratio indicates there is rising housing price stability risk. Aggregate data for the country are used, whereas real estate prices are also significantly impacted by local conditions.
Practical implications
Ratio trends might enable real estate investors and homeowners to determine when to sell real estate investments prior to a price collapse and preserve wealth, which would otherwise result in the loss of equity. Higher exuberance ratios should result in an increase in the discount rate, which results in lower valuations as measured by the formula net operating income dividend by the discount rate. It can also signal when to start reinvesting in real estate, because real estate prices are rising, and the ratios are relative low compared to income.
Social implications
The graphical descriptive depictions seem to suggest that government intervention into the housing market while a spike is forming may not be possible due to the speed with which a spike forms and collapses. Expected income declines would cause the income ratios to change and signal that housing prices will start declining. Both the income and rental ratios in the US housing market have continued to increase since 2008.
Originality/value
A consumer sentiment variable was added to the analysis. Prior researchers have suggested adding a consumer sentiment explanatory variable to the model. The results generated for this variable were counterintuitive. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) price index results signaled a change during a different year than when the S&P/Case–Shiller Home Price Index is used. Many prior studies used the FHFA price index. They emphasized regulatory issues associated with changing exuberance ratio levels. This case study applies these ideas to measure relative increases in risk, which should impact the discount rate used to estimate the intrinsic value of a residential property.
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İsmail Cem Özgüler, Z. Göknur Büyükkara and C. Coskun Küçüközmen
The purpose of this study is to determine the Turkish housing price and rent dynamics among seven big cities with a unique monthly data set over 2003–2019. The secondary purpose…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to determine the Turkish housing price and rent dynamics among seven big cities with a unique monthly data set over 2003–2019. The secondary purpose is to examine bubble dynamics within the price convergence framework through alternative tests.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper conducts two autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) cointegration estimates for housing prices and rents and applies conditional error correction model to investigate the long-run drivers of the Turkish housing market. The authors compare ARDL cointegration in-sample forecasts and discounted cash flow (DCF) estimates with actual prices to determine the timing, magnitude and collapse period(s) of bubbles within the price convergence framework. In particular, the generalized sup augmented Dickey–Fuller (GSADF) approach time stamps multiple explosive price behaviors.
Findings
The ARDL results confirm the theory of investment value by addressing mortgage rates, the price-to-rent ratio and rents as the fundamental factors of house prices. The price-to-rent ratio offers a comparison mechanism among houses deciding to buy a new house in which rents increase monthly real estate investment returns, and mortgage rates act as the discount rate. One key finding is that these dynamics have a greater impact on house prices than mortgage rates. Furthermore, the ARDL, DCF and GSADF findings exhibit temporal overvaluations rather than bubble signals, implying that housing price appreciations, including explosive behaviors, are consistent with fundamental advances.
Originality/value
This paper is considered to be innovative in determining housing market dynamics through two different ARDL estimates for the Turkish housing price index and rents in real terms as dependent variables. The authors compare the boom and collapse periods of the real housing price index and its fundamentals via the GSADF test. A final key feature of this research is its extensive data set, with 11 different regressors between 2003 and 2019.
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Soumya Bhadury and Bhanu Pratap
In the economic literature, a crisis has been thematically defined around bank runs, failure of large financial corporations, and financial distress. Section 1 summarizes our…
Abstract
In the economic literature, a crisis has been thematically defined around bank runs, failure of large financial corporations, and financial distress. Section 1 summarizes our learnings about international banking crisis, in terms of the origin and impact of such crises. This provides us an international benchmark before we delve deeper into India's banking distress, its size and trends. Section 2 focuses on the twin-balance-sheet crisis in India. On one side, corporate firms recklessly overleveraged, resulting in excess capacities and business diversification. On the other side, banks, both private and public, fell prey to excessive and procyclical credit lending and improper monitoring. Overall, too many projects were left too weakly monitored. Separately, we have focused on two subsections, first, how the financial institutions in India have overstretched their credit-disposal limit during market upturns. Second, we found absence of any theoretically grounded approaches to determine the capital-adequacy ratios (CARs) for the banks. In Section 3, we have identified the steps taken so far by the Banking regulator and the Government to resolve the crisis. Further, we critically examine the role of Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO) towards a successful non-performing assets (NPAs) resolution in South Korea. Few key takeaways include, (1) establishing a public asset-management company (AMC) focused on maximization of recoveries and resolution of stressed assets, (2) well-defined governance structure for the AMC ensuring it works on market principles, shielded from political interferences, and (3) realistic asset valuation and transfer price that ensures limited downside risks for the public AMC.
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Daniel Lo, Michael James McCord, John McCord, Peadar Thomas Davis and Martin Haran
The price-to-rent ratio is often regarded as an important indicator for measuring housing market imbalance and inefficiency. A central question is the extent to which house prices…
Abstract
Purpose
The price-to-rent ratio is often regarded as an important indicator for measuring housing market imbalance and inefficiency. A central question is the extent to which house prices and rents form part of the same market and thus whether they respond similarly to parallel stimulus. If they are close proxies dynamically, then this provides valuable market intelligence, particularly where causal relationships are evident. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the relationship between market and rental pricing to uncover the price switching dynamics of residential real estate property types and whether the deviation between market rents and prices are integrated over both the long- and short-term.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses cointegration, Wald exogeneity tests and Granger causality models to determine the existence, if any, of cointegration and lead-lag relationships between prices and rents within the Belfast property market, as well as the price-to-rent ratios amongst its five main property sub-markets over the time period M4, 2014 to M12 2018.
Findings
The findings provide some novel insights in relation to the pricing dynamics within Belfast. Housing and rental prices are cointegrated suggesting that they tend to move in tandem in the long run. It is further evident that in the short-run, the price series Granger-causes that of rents inferring that sales price information unidirectionally diffuse to the rental market. Further, the findings on price-to-rent ratios reveal that the detached sector appears to Granger-cause those of other property types except apartments in both the short- and long-term, suggesting possible spill-over of pricing signals from the top-end to the lower strata of the market.
Originality/value
The importance of understanding the relationship between house prices and rental market performance has gathered momentum. Although the house price-rent ratio is widely used as an indicator of over and undervaluation in the housing market, surprisingly little is known about the theoretical relationship between the price-rent ratio across property types and their respective inter-relationships.
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This paper aims to investigate the presence of a housing bubble using Swedish data from 1986Q1-2016Q4 by using various methods.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the presence of a housing bubble using Swedish data from 1986Q1-2016Q4 by using various methods.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the authors use affordability indicators and asset-pricing approaches, including the price-to-income ratio, price-to-rent ratio and user cost, supplemented by a qualitative discussion of other factors affecting house prices. Second, the authors use cointegration techniques to compute the fundamental (or long-run) price, which is then compared with the actual price to test the degree of Sweden’s housing price bubble during the studied period. Third, they apply the univariate right-tailed unit root test procedure to capture bursting bubbles and to date-stamp bubbles.
Findings
The authors find evidence for rational housing bubbles with explosive behavioral components beginning in 2004. These bubbles do not continuously diverge but instead periodically revert to their fundamental value. However, the deviation is persistent, and without any policy correction, it takes decades for real house prices to return to equilibrium.
Originality/value
The policy implication is that monetary policy designed to contain mortgage demand and thereby prevent burst episodes in the housing market must address external imbalances, as revealed in real exchange rate undervaluation. It is unlikely that current policies will stop the rise of house prices, as the growth of mortgage credit, improvement in Sweden’s international competitiveness and the path of interest rates are much more important factors.
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Michael McCord, Stanley McGreal, Jim Berry, Martin Haran and Peadar Davis
The downturn in the residential housing market in Northern Ireland (NI) has been the most pronounced of any UK region, with house prices contracting circa 40 per cent between…
Abstract
Purpose
The downturn in the residential housing market in Northern Ireland (NI) has been the most pronounced of any UK region, with house prices contracting circa 40 per cent between 2007Q3 and 2009Q4. The downturn at first glance appears to have increased the “ability to afford” however this is nonetheless a “false dawn”. Significant deposit levels coupled with a more prudent lending culture has ensured that housing affordability remains a primary policy concern. The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyse the interrelationships between mortgage liquidity and housing affordability in NI during the boom‐bust cycle in the residential property market.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper analyses mortgage‐lending statistics for NI in the period 1993‐2009, using time series panel data. House price data are drawn from the University of Ulster House Price Index over the same time series. To facilitate analytical interpretation and outcome analysis, quantitative evaluation is applied within a first‐time buyer (FTB) affordability framework.
Findings
This study finds that the relationship between mortgage finance and affordability has been driven by deregulation of the mortgage market contributing to the rise in house prices and affordability pressures during the market up cycle. More recently, ongoing liquidity constraints within the financial sector are impairing recovery in the residential property market culminating in heightened concerns of both purchase and “deposit gap” affordability. The key findings suggest that the new significant capital requirement needed to access the housing market will inevitably prolong affordability pressures for the foreseeable future.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to affordability debate in two ways. First, it examines the effect of both liberalised and contracted patterns of mortgage finance on affordability and argues that conventional approaches appear to present a “false dawn” for FTBs in NI. Second, the paper demonstrates that affordability post‐financial crisis has shifted in genre towards a purchase and deposit gap (lag time) issue.
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The purpose of this paper is to clarify the concept of bubble, what it means to explain a bubble and propose a list of bubble indicators.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the concept of bubble, what it means to explain a bubble and propose a list of bubble indicators.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a literature review and some philosophical ideas to derive conclusions for the problems studied.
Findings
A price bubble should be defined only in relation to the development of prices: a dramatic increase immediately followed by a dramatic fall. The traditional definition in terms of prices not determined by fundamentals is problematic primarily because the concept “fundamentals” is vague. A bubble can never be explained by a single factor, but is the result of the interaction of a number of factors. The explanatory factors proposed are used to derive a set of indicators working as warning signals whether a dramatic increase in prices will be followed by a dramatic fall. The list developed covers, for example, interest costs in relation to household incomes, the elasticity of supply, price expectations and credit conditions.
Research limitations/implications
Both the explanatory framework and the list of indicators should be seen as preliminary and the starting point for further development through empirical testing.
Practical implications
A developed list of bubble indicators could be useful for a number of actors, e.g. banks and authorities responsible for monitoring financial stability.
Originality/value
The contribution is a clearer and more useful concept of bubble, a clearer separation of the question whether bubbles exist and how they should be explained. The proposed list of indicators goes far beyond earlier indicators.
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Since 2000 house prices have risen much more rapidly than rents. This has resulted in questions being raised about the traditional relationship between residential rents and…
Abstract
Purpose
Since 2000 house prices have risen much more rapidly than rents. This has resulted in questions being raised about the traditional relationship between residential rents and property values. The objective of this paper is to determine if changes in private sector residential rents can be used to forecast changes in New Zealand house prices. The hypothesis being that there is a strong linkage between income and value in both the share markets and commercial property markets and the same effect is likely to be true for housing.
Design/methodology/approach
The relationship between changes in residential rents and changes in house prices over the period 1993‐2005 was determined by using correlation analysis. Cross correlations were calculated with rents leading and lagging house prices by seven half yearly periods. These calculations were computed for all New Zealand and the three main cities (Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch).
Findings
The highest correlation coefficients between rents and house prices occurred when rents lagged house prices by six months. This finding supports the contention that rents drive house prices and not vice versa.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation with the study is the private sector data only covers a relatively short time period (1993‐2005). Longer rental time series are unreliable because they include periods when social housing rents were set at market levels and longer periods when rents were subsidised.
Practical implications
Housing in New Zealand appears to be over priced because with net yields generally less than half mortgage interest rates there is an over reliance on capital gain that is not supported by rental income.
Originality/value
The study identifies the effect of net migration on rents and explains why rental supply tends to lag demand.
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Marcelo M. de Oliveira and Alexandre C. L. Almeida
Speculative bubbles have been occurring periodically in local or global real-estate markets and are considered a potential cause of economic crises. In this context, the detection…
Abstract
Speculative bubbles have been occurring periodically in local or global real-estate markets and are considered a potential cause of economic crises. In this context, the detection of explosive behaviors in the financial market and the implementation of early warning diagnosis tests are of critical importance. The recent increase in Brazilian housing prices has risen concerns that the Brazilian economy may have a speculative housing bubble. In the present chapter, we employ a recently proposed recursive unit root test in order to identify possible speculative bubbles in data from the Brazilian residential real-estate market. The empirical results show evidence for speculative price bubbles both in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, the two main Brazilian cities.