Economic Theory and Housing Market

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Economic Theory and Housing Market

The core of economic theory is based on supply and demand. Demand is

what consumers are willing to buy at any given price. Supply is what

suppliers are willing to sell at a given price.

We can then relate this to the housing market.

There are factors, which can increase or decrease supply, e.g. cost

and availability of resources, government tax etc.

There are also many factors that affect demand, e.g. price of

substitutes (flats), price of compliments (mortgage), etc. These

factors can then either increase of decrease demand.

THE HOUSING MARKET

I will use the housing market to try and prove if different economic

theories have elements of truth in it by looking at statistics and

facts, or is it simply theoretical and unrealistic.

THEORY ONE

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The first economic theory states that if real household income rises

then demand for a good, therefore houses should increase. Although

housing is seen more as a necessity, certain houses can also

definitely be seen as luxurious.

YEAR

NUMBER OF HOUSES BOUGHT (000S)

AVERAGE INCOME

1990

1400

11,184

1991

1300

12,103

1992

1128

12,824

1993

1191

13,405

1994

1279

13,863

1995

1311

15,636

1996

1243

16,519

1997

1440

17,713

1998

1347

19,057

1999

1470

19,641

2000

1499

Looking at the data we can nearly automatically see that the increase

in income has as a result increased the demand for buying houses due

to consumer confidence and spending. If they have more money then they

believe that they are able to spend more and therefore take out a

mortgage.

THEORY TWO

Compliments are two goods, which are bought in conjunction with each

other, as they are dependant on one another, e.

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