Objective Housing Sales and Rent Prices in Representative Household Surveys: Implications for Wealth, Inequality, Housing Market and Affordability Statistics

Abstract

Many economic analyses require hypothetical but realistic sales and rent prices for properties representative for the housing stock and reflecting current market conditions. To achieve this, we replace subjectively reported prices in a representative household survey in Luxembourg by objectified hedonic imputations informed by observable market data. Thus, we propose a powerful tool for assessing the health and affordability of housing markets, compiling housing-related statistics and simulating hypothetical scenarios. This approach also enables us to test for the reliability of survey responses. When switching to objectified values, we detect shifts in the wealth distribution, large regional variation in market indicators and striking affordability concerns: only 18% of Luxembourg’s renters could theoretically afford purchasing their inhabited dwelling given current market conditions. Further, participants’ tendency to mis-estimate market values strongly correlates with tenure length and type, dwelling type, income and wealth.FNR Luxembourg National Research Fund, CORE Grant No. 3886 (ASSESS