Selected Topics in Housing Theory: A National Perspective

Abstract

This chapter considers the micro and macroeconomic foundations underpinning models typically used to analyse national and international housing markets. The biggest difference between this and the two following chapters, which are concerned with regional and urban markets, is the absence of any spatial dimension. By contrast urban analysis, (Chapter 5), is dominated by spatial considerations and regional analysis, (Chapter 4), at least pays lip service to spatial structure; but national models are almost entirely set in a spatial vacuum. As we shall see, however, many modern models are based on life-cycle theory and standard arbitrage conditions can be derived which form the basis of many house price equations.