Real Estate Brokerage and the Hosting Market: An Annotated Bibliography

A number of facets of real estate brokerage have been examined over time in theoretical and empirical articles appearing in the literature. This article summarizes brokerage research and suggests avenues for future inquiry. In attempting to organize brokerage research, the research is classified into eight broad topical areas: (1) brokerage firm characteristics; (2) broker commissions; (3) time on the market; (4) broker compensation; (5) the effects of brokerage on house prices; (6) regulation of the brokerage industry; (7) legal liability; and (8) international comparisons. In each area, we point out the major focus of the research by summarizing important findings.

What Do We Know About Real Estate Brokerage?

Many facets of real estate brokerage have been examined in studies appearing in the literature over the last several years. This review attempts to organize the research around six questions concerning the brokerage industry: (1) What is the nature of the market for brokerage services and how does it influence the individual firm; (2) What factors determine broker and agent compensation; (3) How does brokerage participation influence time on the market and price; (4) Is the brokerage market efficient and equitable;(5) Must brokerage firms assume greater liability; and (6) How do brokerage markets vary internationally. In examining each question, the review points out the major focus of the research and summarizes important findings. Its purpose is to identify key issues facing the brokerage industry and suggest avenues for future study.

What Do We Know about Apartments and Their Markets?

This paper examines major themes in apartment market research. The intent is to provide an overview of academic studies of the apartment market and to outline directions for future research.

Why do Households Concentrate Their Wealth in Housing?

An apparent paradox in household wealth accumulation in the United States is the relatively small holding of financial assets and the large holding of housing wealth. To explain the high concentration of household wealth in housing, this paper estimates the marginal propensity to consume from housing and from financial assets. A higher marginal propensity to consume from housing rather than from financial assets would lead households to concentrate their wealth in real estate. For aggregate U.S. quarterly data from 1952:1 to 2002:2, the marginal propensity to consume from housing is higher than that from financial wealth. These conditions provide a rationale for the concentration of household assets in housing.

UK Housing Market: Time Series Processes with Independent and Identically Distributed Residuals

The paper examines whether a univariate data generating process can be identified which explains the data by having residuals that are independent and identically distributed, as verified by the BDS test. The stationary first differenced natural log quarterly house price index is regressed, initially with a constant variance and then with a conditional variance. The only regression function that produces independent and identically distributed standardised residuals is a mean process based on a pure random walk format with Exponential GARCH in mean for the conditional variance. There is an indication of an asymmetric volatility feedback effect but higher frequency data is required to confirm this. There could be scope for forecasting the index but this is tempered by the reduction in the power of the BDS test if there is a non-linear conditional variance process

Tensile Fracture of Welded Polymer Interfaces: Miscibility, Entanglements and Crazing

Large-scale molecular simulations are performed to investigate tensile failure of polymer interfaces as a function of welding time $t$. Changes in the tensile stress, mode of failure and interfacial fracture energy $G_I$ are correlated to changes in the interfacial entanglements as determined from Primitive Path Analysis. Bulk polymers fail through craze formation, followed by craze breakdown through chain scission. At small $t$ welded interfaces are not strong enough to support craze formation and fail at small strains through chain pullout at the interface. Once chains have formed an average of about one entanglement across the interface, a stable craze is formed throughout the sample. The failure stress of the craze rises with welding time and the mode of craze breakdown changes from chain pullout to chain scission as the interface approaches bulk strength. The interfacial fracture energy $G_I$ is calculated by coupling the simulation results to a continuum fracture mechanics model. As in experiment, $G_I$ increases as $t^{1/2}$ before saturating at the average bulk fracture energy $G_b$. As in previous simulations of shear strength, saturation coincides with the recovery of the bulk entanglement density. Before saturation, $G_I$ is proportional to the areal density of interfacial entanglements. Immiscibiltiy limits interdiffusion and thus suppresses entanglements at the interface. Even small degrees of immisciblity reduce interfacial entanglements enough that failure occurs by chain pullout and $G_I \ll G_b$

Spatio-temporal diffusion of residential land prices across Taipei regions

ABSTRACT: Past studies have shown that changes in the house price of a region may transmit to its neighbouring regions. The transmission mechanism may follow spatial and temporal diffusion processes. This paper investigates such regional housing market dynamics and interactions among local housing sub-markets in Taipei. The analysis is based on a panel data framework and spatial panel models using annual data on median residential land prices from 41 Taipei sub-markets over the period from 1992 to 2010. The empirical analysis suggests that spatial dependence plays a significant role in interactions among regional housing markets. The results are strongly robust across several model specifications and regions controlling for time fixed effects and space-time covariance. These findings have significant implications for urban spatial planning and efficient use of public resources in mega-urban areas. JEL CLASSIFICATIONS: C21; C23; R12; H5