Superstition in the Housing Market

Nicole Fortin, Andrew Hill () and Jeff Huang
Additional contact information
Jeff Huang: University of British Columbia, Vancouver

No 7484, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We provide the first solid evidence that Chinese superstitious beliefs can have significant effects on house prices in a North American market with a large immigrant population. Using real estate data on close to 117,000 house sales, we find that houses with address number ending in four are sold at a 2.2% discount and those ending in eight are sold at a 2.5% premium in comparison to houses with other addresses. These price effects are found either in neighborhoods with a higher than average percentage of Chinese residents, consistent with cultural preferences, or in repeated transactions, consistent with speculative behavior.

Keywords: housing markets efficiency; lucky Chinese numbers; superstition; immigration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D03 J15 R2 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2013-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-mig and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published - publiished in: Economic Inquiry, 2014, 52(3), 974-993.

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Related works:
Journal Article: SUPERSTITION IN THE HOUSING MARKET (2014)
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