The Economic Theory of Housing Demand: A Critical Review

Isaac F. Megbolugbe, Allen P. Marks and Mary B. Schwartz
Additional contact information
Isaac F. Megbolugbe: Department of Finance and Real Estate College of Business Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306-1042, http://www.kogod.american.edu/
Allen P. Marks: Department of Finance and Real Estate Kogod College of Business The American University Washington, D.C. 20016-8044, http://www.kogod.american.edu/
Mary B. Schwartz: Office of Housing Policy Research Fannie Mae Washington, D.C. 20016, http://www.fanniemae.com/

Journal of Real Estate Research, 1991, vol. 6, issue 3, 381-393

Abstract: Despite thirty years of modeling housing markets, housing analysts still have difficulty accurately assessing housing demand. This article reviews the current state of the art in economic modeling of housing demand determinants and suggests a future direction for further research. The fully developed economic theory of the housing market for analyzing housing decisions is the neoclassical consumer theory of housing demand. The review of the various modifications that have been made to better operationalize the imperfect and noncompetitive features of the housing market show that these modifications have been introduced in several partial models. These models include tenure choice models, search models, mobility models, and housing trait models. There is currently no single model that incorporates all of the modifications attempted in these partial models. In fact, it may be impossible to operationalize and incorporate all of the modifications of the neoclassical model into a single model. Therefore, the most feasible and conceptually correct research strategy to advance our understanding of housing consumption decisions is to analyze the impact of demographic and social processes on housing consumption decisions. There is a need to research how to include demographic and sociological constructs that capture the attitudes, preferences, and perceptions of the consumer into the classical economic model of housing demand.

JEL-codes: L85 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1991
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://pages.jh.edu/jrer/papers/pdf/past/vol06n03/v06p357.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jre:issued:v:6:n:3:1991:p:381-393

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
Diane Quarles American Real Estate Society Manager of Member Services Clemson University Box 341323 Clemson, SC 29634-1323
http://pages.jh.edu/jrer/about/get.htm

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Real Estate Research is currently edited by Dr. Ko Wang

More articles in Journal of Real Estate Research from American Real Estate Society American Real Estate Society Clemson University School of Business & Behavioral Science Department of Finance 401 Sirrine Hall Clemson, SC 29634-1323.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by JRER Graduate Assistant/Webmaster ().