Working Paper

Equity and time to sale in the real estate market

Abstract: Estimates from the Boston condominium market show that owners with high loan-to-value ratios take longer to sell their properties than owners with low loan-to-value ratios. When sold, properties with high loan-to-value ratios receive a higher price than units with less debt. Both of these results are consistent with a search model in which owners \"constrained\" by large amounts of debt set a higher reservation price than \"unconstrained\" owners, accepting a lower probability of sale in exchange for a higher final sales price, and thus lend credibility to theoretical models that establish a link between sales volume and prices through changes in the equity of existing homeowners.

Keywords: Real property;

Status: Published in American Economic Review 87, no. 3 (June 1997): 255-69.

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Part of Series: Working Papers

Publication Date: 1993

Number: 93-6