Geographic distance to my inherited home: Impact on vacancy duration

This paper finds that inheritors of a parental home who live nearby tend to prolong the vacancy, particularly in low-density areas, with similar patterns observed in areas experiencing negative population growth. This phenomenon arises because inheritors living farther away face higher costs associated with visiting for property management, while those living in close proximity incur relatively lower costs. To explore this, the paper examines how vacancy duration is influenced by the distance between the inheritor's residence and the inherited home, as this distance affects the visitation cost. To address potential omitted variable bias, such as emotional attachment to the parental home or siblings, we use an instrumental variable method. Variation in migration patterns provides an exogenous source of variation in distance, since individuals from the same region often move to similar destinations, and this is unlikely to be linked to vacancy duration. The results demonstrate a negative association between vacancy duration and distance. Specifically, when the inherited parental home is located in a low-density area, a 10-kilometer decrease in distance leads to a 1-month increase in vacancy duration.