Review of Financial Studies Vol. 36 No. 7 2023
The Missing Homebuyers: Regional Heterogeneity and Credit Contractions
Abstract
This paper documents an unprecedented decrease in young homeownership since the Great Recession driven by regions with high house prices. Using a panel of U.S. metro areas, I calibrate an equilibrium spatial macro-finance model with overlapping generations of mobile households. The dynamics of regional housing markets is explained by an aggregate credit contraction with heterogeneous local impacts rather than by local shocks. Lower millennial income and wealth amplify its effect. The impact of subsidies to first-time buyers is dampened, because they fail to stimulate regions that suffer from larger busts. Place-based subsidies achieve larger gains.
- DOI
- 10.1093/rfs/hhac077
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 2756-2796
- Language
- en
- Sources
- bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref