Housing is fundamentally a multi-dimensional product. It functions as a means of residence as well as a means of accumulating wealth. In order to make the own versus rent decision, each household has to consider not only the characteristics of indiv...
Housing is fundamentally a multi-dimensional product. It functions as a means of residence as well as a means of accumulating wealth. In order to make the own versus rent decision, each household has to consider not only the characteristics of individual household but also the effects from housing market conditions and housing policies. However, the existing literature on the subject of housing tenure choice has mainly focused on the effects of demographic and socio-economic characteristics on the tenure choice of households.
Therefore, this dissertation aims to accomplish three distinctive purposes as follows: First, the study investigates what aspects of housing market conditions have significant influence on the tenure choice of households. Second, the study identifies whether there are differences of motives for purchase of house buyers as per housing business cycles. Third, the study explores and compares the determinants of being a homeowner or a renter according to housing market business cycles.
In order to achieve these purposes effectively, the dissertation employs multiple research methods based on the data acquired from the housing finance demand survey conducted during the period between 2007 and 2009 by “Kookmin bank".
HP filter method is used to distinguish up-phase state and down trend state of housing market trends, and three housing market-related factors such as the ratio of deposit money to sale price, the sensitivity indicators, and the annual rate of change in housing sales price are chosen to conduct binary logit model. The results of the empirical analyses for the study are as follows.
First, when we ignore the effect from the housing market business cycles, the probability of choosing home ownership is likely to be higher the older the age of the head of household, the larger the size of household, and the higher the permanent-income level of household. But the probability of choosing home ownership is higher the lower the relative-price of housing. In case of double-income household, the probability of choosing rental housing tends to be higher. Considering regional characteristics, more households in non-metropolitan areas are likely to own their houses compared to their counterparts in metropolitan areas. The study results also indicate that the factors related to the housing market also tend to affect tenure choice of households. The probability of choosing home ownership is likely to be higher, the lower the ratio of deposit money to sale price of houses. This result connotes that households decide to own housing when they expect the increase in the price of housing in the future. This tendency, then, affects the increase in housing prices and the decrease in the ratio of deposit money to sale price. In case of the sensitivity indicators and the annual rate of change in housing sales price, the probability of choosing home ownership is likely to be higher when there are more of these factors. This could be assumed that the psychological element of market influences the tenure choices of households.
Second, the analysis of housing market business cycles indicates that the housing demand is higher during the upward moving stage of housing market than the downward moving stage. This result is contrary to what we have expected previously. It is assumed that the psychological element of anxiety of losing the chance of home ownership might have significantly affected the end-users decision to own versus rent.
Third, the results of analysis with two groups, one group who became home owner during the upward phase of housing market business cycle and another group who became home owner during the downward phase of business cycle, show that the coefficient of relative price variable has negative sign for both groups. But the value of the coefficient of upward moving stage is larger than that of downward moving stage. This result indicates that the relative price affects hosing tenure choice more when the housing market cycle is on the upward moving stage. Considering the age of the head of household and regional characteristics, older head of household and non-metropolitan area households have higher possibility to purchase house in down trend housing market.
Other findings from the research include the followings: First, housing demand increases when households expect the future housing price to rise during upward moving stage of housing market cycle. The possibility of choosing home ownership gets higher as the ratio of deposit money to sale price becomes lower. Second, in the case of the sensitivity indicator, the coefficient is not significant for upward moving stage. But the possibility of choosing home ownership becomes higher as the sensitivity indicator becomes better in the case of downward moving stage of housing business cycle. Third, the annual change in housing price show positive coefficient value for both maket phases. This indicates that the probability of choosing home ownership becomes higher as index value becomes better. There is no significant difference between two housing market phases.
From the above research results, several lessons can be learned. First, housing policies should consider housing market business cycles in order to be more effective, because households are likely to react differently according to different housing market situations. Second, policy makers and housing market analysts should monitor more carefully the changes in housing market-related factors such as the ratio of deposit money to sale price, the sensitivity indicators, and the annual change in the price of housing, because these factors also affect housing tenure choice of households.