IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/reesec/v32y2004i4p695-713.html

The Effects of Charm Listing Prices on House Transaction Prices

Author

Listed:
  • Marcus T. Allen
  • William H. Dare

Abstract

As is the case for many different goods and services, it is common practice in many real estate markets for sellers to offer properties for sale at listing prices just below some round number price (e.g., $99,900 instead of $100,000). The academic marketing literature refers to this practice as “charm” pricing and suggests that this strategy is an attempt by sellers to take advantage of buyers' cognitive processes in which charm prices affect buyers' perceptions about the seller or the item being offered for sale. Although numerous papers in the housing economics literature have addressed the impact of the magnitude of listing price on observed house transaction prices, no prior published study has considered the impact of the design of listing prices in housing markets. This paper presents an empirical investigation of the effects of charm pricing on house transaction prices using sample data. The results provide some evidence that houses listed at certain charm prices sell for significantly greater transaction prices than those listed at round number prices.

Suggested Citation

  • Marcus T. Allen & William H. Dare, 2004. "The Effects of Charm Listing Prices on House Transaction Prices," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 32(4), pages 695-713, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:reesec:v:32:y:2004:i:4:p:695-713
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1080-8620.2004.00108.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1080-8620.2004.00108.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1080-8620.2004.00108.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Davidson, Russell & MacKinnon, James G., 1993. "Estimation and Inference in Econometrics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195060119.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xin He & Zhenguo Lin & Yingchun Liu & Michael J. Seiler, 2020. "Search Benefit in Housing Markets: An Inverted U‐Shaped Price and TOM Relation," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 48(3), pages 772-807, September.
    2. Robert M. Schindler & Mathew S. Isaac & Rebecca Jen-Hui Wang, 2023. "Strategic use of just-below numbers in packaged-foods calorie information," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 237-250, June.
    3. Eric J. Levin & Gwilym B. J. Pryce, 2007. "A Statistical Explanation for Extreme Bids in the House Market," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(12), pages 2339-2355, November.
    4. Hong Lee & Joseph R. Mason, 2025. "Appraisal quality and loan characteristics: evidence from Newcomb–Benford Law," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 69(6), pages 3721-3758, December.
    5. Annalisa Fraccaro & Sandrine Macé & Béatrice Parguel, 2021. "The not-so-odd couple: Odd pricing in a luxury context," Post-Print halshs-03503449, HAL.
    6. Bruce L. Gordon & Daniel T. Winkler, 2017. "The Effect of Listing Price Changes on the Selling Price of Single-Family Residential Homes," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 185-215, August.
    7. Scott S. Wiltermuth & Timothy Gubler & Lamar Pierce, 2023. "Anchoring on Historical Round Number Reference Points: Evidence from Durable Goods Resale Prices," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(5), pages 1839-1863, September.
    8. Hanming Fang & Long Wang & Yang Yang, 2022. "Housing Wealth and Online Consumer Behavior: Evidence from Xiong'an New Area in China," NBER Working Papers 30465, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. David Harrison & Michael Seiler, 2015. "The Paradox of Judicial Foreclosure: Collateral Value Uncertainty and Mortgage Rates," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 377-411, April.
    10. Luca Repetto & Alex Solís, 2020. "The Price of Inattention: Evidence from the Swedish Housing Market," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(6), pages 3261-3304.
    11. Eli Beracha & Michael J. Seiler, 2015. "The Effect of Pricing Strategy on Home Selection and Transaction Prices: An Investigation of the Left-Most Digit Effect," Journal of Housing Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 147-161, January.
    12. Fraccaro, Annalisa & Macé, Sandrine & Parguel, Béatrice, 2021. "The not-so-odd couple: Odd pricing in a luxury context," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 356-365.
    13. Cardella, Eric & Seiler, Michael J., 2016. "The effect of listing price strategy on real estate negotiations: An experimental study," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 71-90.
    14. Meng, Charlotte C., 2023. "The price paid: Heuristic thinking and biased reference points in the housing market," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    15. Marcus T. Allen & Justin D. Benefield & Ronald C. Rutherford, 2023. "Co-Listing Strategies: Better Transaction Outcomes?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 67(3), pages 517-544, October.
    16. Eli Beracha & Michael Seiler, 2014. "The Effect of Listing Price Strategy on Transaction Selling Prices," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 237-255, August.
    17. Pope, Devin G. & Pope, Jaren C. & Sydnor, Justin R., 2015. "Focal points and bargaining in housing markets," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 89-107.
    18. Kwong Wing Chau & Danika Wright & Ervi Liusman, 2018. "The cost of a lucky price," ERES eres2018_240, European Real Estate Society (ERES).
    19. Luca Repetto & Alex Solís, 0. "The Price of Inattention: Evidence from the Swedish Housing Market," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(6), pages 3261-3304.
    20. Shimizu, Chihiro & Nishimura, Kiyohiko G. & Watanabe, Tsutomu, 2016. "House prices at different stages of the buying/selling process," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 37-53.
    21. Jason Beck & Lindsay Levine & Michael Toma, 2024. "Just‐below pricing in real estate: Impact by price segment and market conditions," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 83(1), pages 17-34, January.
    22. Diewert, W. Erwin & Nishimura , Kiyohiko & Shimizu, Chihiro & Watanabe, Tsutomu, 2014. "Residential Property Price Indexes for Japan: An Outline of the Japanese Official RPPI," Economics working papers erwin_diewert-2014-17, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 27 Mar 2014.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Antzoulatos, Angelos A., 1998. "Macroeconomic forecasts under the prism of error-correction models," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(6), pages 535-550, November.
    2. Kazumi Endo, 2019. "Does the stock market value corporate environmental performance? Some perils of static regression models," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(6), pages 1530-1538, November.
    3. David Hauner & Manmohan Kumar, 2011. "Interest rates and budget deficits revisited-evidence from the G7 countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(12), pages 1463-1475.
    4. Anikó Bíró, 2013. "Subjective mortality hazard shocks and the adjustment of consumption expenditures," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(4), pages 1379-1408, October.
    5. Zanini, Fabio C. & Irwin, Scott H. & Schnitkey, Gary D. & Sherrick, Bruce J., 2000. "Estimating Farm-Level Yield Distributions For Corn And Soybeans In Illinois," 2000 Annual meeting, July 30-August 2, Tampa, FL 21720, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    6. Giuseppe Croce & Emanuela Ghignoni, 2011. "Overeducation and spatial flexibility in Italian local labour markets," Working Papers in Public Economics 145, Department of Economics and Law, Sapienza University of Rome.
    7. Chasco, Coro & López, Ana María & Guillain, Rachel, 2008. "The non-stationary influence of geography on the spatial agglomeration of production in the EU," MPRA Paper 10737, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Davidson, Russell & Flachaire, Emmanuel, 2007. "Asymptotic and bootstrap inference for inequality and poverty measures," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 141(1), pages 141-166, November.
    9. Caginalp, Gunduz & DeSantis, Mark, 2017. "Does price efficiency increase with trading volume? Evidence of nonlinearity and power laws in ETFs," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 467(C), pages 436-452.
    10. María José Ibáñez & Felipe Vásquez Lavin & Roberto D. Ponce Oliva, 2023. "Female Underperformance Hypothesis Revisited: Methodological Review and Empirical Testing," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    11. Ramses Abul Naga & Frank Cowell, 2002. "Intergenerational Mobility in Britain: Revisiting the Prediction Approach of Dearden, Machin and Reed," Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'économie 02.15, Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, Département d’économie.
    12. Liwu Hsu & Susan Fournier & Shuba Srinivasan, 2016. "Brand architecture strategy and firm value: how leveraging, separating, and distancing the corporate brand affects risk and returns," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 261-280, March.
    13. Jongeneel, Roelof A. & Ge, Lan, 2005. "Explaining Growth in Dutch Agriculture: Prices, Public R&D, and Technological Change," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24573, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    14. Dong, Yingying, 2010. "Jumpy or Kinky? Regression Discontinuity without the Discontinuity," MPRA Paper 25461, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Vincenzo Cassino & Richard Thornton, 2002. "Do changes in structural factors explain movements in the equilibrium rate of unemployment?," Bank of England Staff Working Paper series 153, Bank of England.
    16. David F. Hendry & Hans-Martin Krolzig, 2005. "The Properties of Automatic "GETS" Modelling," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(502), pages 32-61, March.
    17. V. M. Manyong & I. Okike & T. O. Williams, 2006. "Effective dimensionality and factors affecting crop‐livestock integration in West African savannas: a combination of principal component analysis and Tobit approaches," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 35(2), pages 145-155, September.
    18. Barnett, William A. & Serletis, Apostolos, 2008. "Consumer preferences and demand systems," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 147(2), pages 210-224, December.
    19. Hany Eldemerdash & Hugh Metcalf & Sara Maioli, 2014. "Twin deficits: new evidence from a developing (oil vs. non-oil) countries’ perspective," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 825-851, November.
    20. Rao, Surekha & Ghali, Moheb & Krieg, John, 2008. "On the J-test for nonnested hypotheses and Bayesian extension," MPRA Paper 14637, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:reesec:v:32:y:2004:i:4:p:695-713. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/areueea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.