Flood, Morin, and Kolet examine the role of house prices in household consumption decisions. Considering a group of advanced economies, the authors find that the strength of the link between house prices and consumer spending depends on the institutional features of national mortgage markets. The link between house prices and consumer spending is found to be stronger in countries with more-developed mortgage markets characterized by lower down payment ratios, increased availability of home-equity borrowing products, longer average mortgage terms, and a higher degree of mortgage securitization. Their findings also suggest that the liberalization of mortgage markets since the early 1980s has resulted in a stronger link between house prices and consumer spending.
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