DP10342 Buying First or Selling First in Housing Markets

Author(s):	Espen R Moen, Plamen T. Nenov, Florian Sniekers
Publication Date:	January 2015
Keyword(s):	housing market, order of transactions, search frictions, strategic complementarities
JEL(s):	R21, R31
Programme Areas:	Financial Economics, Industrial Organization
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=10342

Housing transactions by owner-occupiers take two steps, purchase of a new property and sale of the old housing unit. This paper shows how the transaction sequence decision of owner-occupiers depends on, and in turn, affects housing market conditions in an equilibrium search-and-matching model of the housing market. We show that home-owners prefer to buy first whenever there are more buyers than sellers in the market. This behavior leads to multiple steady state equilibria and to self-fulfilling fluctuations in prices and time-on-market. Equilibrium switches creates large fluctuations in the housing market, which are broadly consistent with stylized facts on the housing cycle.