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Flipping in the housing market

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  • Leung, Charles Ka Yui
  • Tse, Chung-Yi

Abstract

We add arbitraging middlemen – investors who attempt to profit from buying low and selling high – to a canonical housing market search model. Flipping tends to take place in sluggish and tight, but not in moderate, markets. To follow is the possibility of multiple equilibria. In one equilibrium, most, if not all, transactions are intermediated, resulting in rapid turnover, a high vacancy rate, and high housing prices. In another equilibrium, few houses are bought and sold by middlemen. Turnover is slow, few houses are vacant, and prices are moderate. Moreover, flippers can enter and exit en masse in response to the smallest interest rate shock. The housing market can then be intrinsically unstable even when all flippers are akin to the arbitraging middlemen in classical finance theory. In speeding up turnover, the flipping that takes place in a sluggish and illiquid market tends to be socially beneficial. The flipping that takes place in a tight and liquid market can be wasteful as the efficiency gain from any faster turnover is unlikely to be large enough to offset the loss from more houses being left vacant in the hands of flippers.

Suggested Citation

  • Leung, Charles Ka Yui & Tse, Chung-Yi, 2017. "Flipping in the housing market," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 232-263.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:76:y:2017:i:c:p:232-263
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jedc.2017.01.003
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    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Flipping in the Housing Market
      by Christian Zimmermann in NEP-DGE blog on 2017-02-10 04:07:43

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    Cited by:

    1. Charles Ka Yui Leung & Joe Cho Yiu Ng, 2018. "Macro Aspects of Housing," GRU Working Paper Series GRU_2018_016, City University of Hong Kong, Department of Economics and Finance, Global Research Unit.
    2. Xing Su & Zhu Qian, 2020. "State Intervention in Land Supply and Its Impact on Real Estate Investment in China: Evidence from Prefecture-Level Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-15, January.
    3. Gian Carlo Delgado Ramos, 2019. "Real Estate Industry as an Urban Growth Machine: A Review of the Political Economy and Political Ecology of Urban Space Production in Mexico City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-24, April.
    4. Leung, Charles Ka Yui & Tse, Chung-Yi, 2017. "Flipping in the housing market," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 232-263.
    5. Daisy J. Huang & Charles Ka Yui Leung & Chung-Yi Tse, 2018. "What Accounts for the Differences in Rent-Price Ratio and Turnover Rate? A Search-and-Matching Approach," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 431-475, October.
    6. Charles Ka Yui Leung & Joe Cho Yiu Ng & Edward Tang, 2020. "Why is the Hong Kong Housing Market Unaffordable? Some Stylized Facts and Estimations," Globalization Institute Working Papers 380, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    7. Charles Ka Yui LEUNG, 2022. "Housing and Macroeconomics," ISER Discussion Paper 1197, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    8. Yifan Chen & Jianhua Gang & Zongxin Qian & Jinfan Zhang, 2023. "Rationality test in the housing market: Project‐level evidence from China," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 583-616, June.
    9. Tsai, I-Chun, 2019. "Dynamic price–volume causality in the American housing market: A signal of market conditions," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 385-400.
    10. Charles Ka Yui Leung & Edward Chi Ho Tang, 2023. "The dynamics of the house price‐to‐income ratio: Theory and evidence," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(1), pages 61-78, January.
    11. Ying Fan & Charles Ka Yui Leung & Zan Yang, 2022. "Financial conditions, local competition, and local market leaders: The case of real estate developers," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 131-193, May.
    12. Lok Sang Ho & Mengna Hu & Xiangdong Wei & Gary Wai Chung Wong, 2023. "The market distortion effects of mortgage tightening and transaction taxes: Evidence from Hong Kong residential resale market," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 142-164, February.
    13. Charles Ka Yui Leung & (single author only), 2021. "Handbook of Real Estate and Macroeconomics: An Introduction," ISER Discussion Paper 1137, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    14. Charles Ka Yui Leung, 2023. "Real Estate Market," ISER Discussion Paper 1225, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    15. Xiaoqi Zhang & Yanqiao Zheng & Lei Sun & Qiwen Dai, 2019. "Urban Structure, Subway Systemand Housing Price: Evidence from Beijing and Hangzhou, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-23, January.
    16. Edward C. H. Tang, 2021. "Speculate a lot," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 91-109, February.
    17. Lingxiao Li & Abdullah Yavas & Bing Zhu, 2023. "Externalities of residential property flipping," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 51(1), pages 233-271, January.
    18. Wong, Siu Kei & Cheung, Ka Shing & Deng, Kuang Kuang & Chau, Kwong Wing, 2021. "Policy responses to an overheated housing market: Credit tightening versus transaction taxes," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    19. 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.
    20. Kuang Kuang Deng & Siu Kei Wong, 2023. "Revisiting the Autocorrelation of Real Estate Returns," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 67(2), pages 243-263, August.
    21. Ping Cheng & Zhenguo Lin & Yingchun Liu, 2021. "Competing Selling Strategies in the Housing Market," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 63(3), pages 394-413, October.
    22. Jianlong Li & Ping Lyu & Chen Jin, 2023. "The Impact of Housing Prices on Regional Innovation Capacity: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-17, August.
    23. Matthew Lorig & Natchanon Suaysom, 2022. "Optimal times to buy and sell a home," Papers 2203.05545, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2022.
    24. Deng, Kuang Kuang & Wong, Siu Kei & Cheung, Ka Shing & Tse, Kwok Sang, 2022. "Do real estate investors trade on momentum?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Search and matching; Housing market; Liquidity; Flippers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • R30 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - General
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates

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