House Price Developments in Europe: A Comparison

By Paul Louis Ceriel Hilbers, Angana Banerji, Haiyan Shi, Willy A Hoffmaister

September 1, 2008

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Paul Louis Ceriel Hilbers, Angana Banerji, Haiyan Shi, and Willy A Hoffmaister. House Price Developments in Europe: A Comparison, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2008) accessed December 26, 2024

Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

House prices in Europe have shown diverging trends, and this paper seeks to explain these differences by analyzing three groups of countries: the "fast lane", the average performers, and the slow movers. Price movements in the first two groups are found to be driven mostly by income and trends in user costs, and housing markets in these countries seem relatively more susceptible to adverse developments in fundamentals. Real house price declines among the slow movers are harder to explain, although ample supply, low home ownership, and less complete mortgage markets are likely factors. The impact of macroeconomic, prudential and structural policies on housing markets can be large and should be a factor in policy decisions.

Subject: Housing, Housing prices, Inflation, Mortgages, Property tax

Keywords: House price, Tax rate, User cost, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

64
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2008/211
Stock No:

WPIEA2008211
ISBN:

9781451870695
ISSN:

1018-5941

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