IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/boc/bocoec/539.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Hedging Housing Risk in London

Author

Listed:
  • Matteo Iacoviello

    (Boston College)

  • Francois Ortalo-Magne

    (London School of Economics)

Abstract

This paper investigates the benefits of allowing households to compensate the portfolio distortion due to their housing consumption through investments in housing price derivatives. Focusing on the London market, we show that a major loss from over-investment in housing is that households are forced to hold a very risky portfolio. However, the strong performance of the London housing market means that little is lost in terms of expected returns. Even households with limited wealth are better off owning their home rather than renting and investing in financial assets, as long as they are willing to face the financial risk involved. In this context, access to housing price derivatives would benefit most poor homeowners looking to limit their risk exposure. It would also benefit wealthier investors looking for the high returns provided by housing investments without the costs of direct ownership of properties. Comparisons with French, Swedish and US data provide a broader perspective on our findings.

Suggested Citation

  • Matteo Iacoviello & Francois Ortalo-Magne, 2002. "Hedging Housing Risk in London," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 539, Boston College Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:boc:bocoec:539
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://fmwww.bc.edu/EC-P/wp539.pdf
    File Function: main text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Englund, Peter & Quigley, John M. & Redfearn, Christian L., 1998. "Improved Price Indexes for Real Estate: Measuring the Course of Swedish Housing Prices," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 171-196, September.
    2. John Y. Campbell & Luis M. Viceira, 1999. "Consumption and Portfolio Decisions when Expected Returns are Time Varying," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(2), pages 433-495.
    3. Shiller, Robert J., 1993. "The theory of index-based futures and options markets," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 8(2), pages 163-178.
    4. Joao Cocco, 2000. "Hedging House Price Risk With Incomplete Markets," Computing in Economics and Finance 2000 317, Society for Computational Economics.
    5. Englund, Peter & Hwang, Min & Quigley, John M, 2002. "Hedging Housing Risk," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 24(1-2), pages 167-200, Jan.-Marc.
    6. Ortalo-Magne, Francois & Rady, Sven, 2002. "Tenure choice and the riskiness of non-housing consumption," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 266-279, September.
    7. Karl E. Case & Robert J. Shiller & Allan N. Weiss, 1991. "Index-Based Futures and Options Markets in Real Estate," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1006, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ricardo M. Sousa, 2009. "Wealth Effetcs on Consumption: Evidence from the euro area," NIPE Working Papers 12/2009, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    2. Jan Rouwendal, 2009. "Housing Wealth and Household Portfolios in an Ageing Society," De Economist, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 1-48, March.
    3. Haavio, Markus & Kauppi, Heikki, 2009. "House price fluctuations and residential sorting," Research Discussion Papers 14/2009, Bank of Finland.
    4. Dröes, Martijn I. & Hassink, Wolter H.J., 2013. "House price risk and the hedging benefits of home ownership," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 92-99.
    5. Cristian Voicu & Michael Seiler, 2013. "Deriving Optimal Portfolios for Hedging Housing Risk," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 379-396, April.
    6. Haavio, Markus & Kauppi, Heikki, 2009. "House price fluctuations and residential sorting," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 14/2009, Bank of Finland.
    7. Sock-Yong Phang, 2009. "Affordable homeownership policy : implications for housing markets," Microeconomics Working Papers 23052, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    8. Charles Leung, 2007. "Equilibrium Correlations of Asset Price and Return," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 233-256, February.
    9. Quigley, John M., 2006. "Real estate portfolio allocation: The European consumers' perspective," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 169-188, September.
    10. Juerg Syz & Paolo Vanini & Marco Salvi, 2008. "Property Derivatives and Index-Linked Mortgages," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 23-35, January.
    11. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2009_014 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Arzu Uluc, 2018. "Stabilising House Prices: the Role of Housing Futures Trading," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 587-621, May.
    13. François Ortalo-Magné & Andrea Prat, 2016. "Spatial Asset Pricing: A First Step," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 83(329), pages 130-171, January.
    14. Yongheng Deng & John Quigley, 2008. "Index Revision, House Price Risk, and the Market for House Price Derivatives," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 191-209, October.
    15. Markus Haavio & Heikki Kauppi, 2006. "House price fluctuations and residential sorting," 2006 Meeting Papers 774, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    16. Ricardo M. Sousa, 2007. "Wealth Shocks and Risk Aversion," NIPE Working Papers 28/2007, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    17. Buckley, Robert & Karaguishiyeva, Gulmira & Van Order, Robert & Vecvagare, Laura, 2003. "Comparing mortgage credit risk policies : an options-based approach," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3047, The World Bank.
    18. Sebastian, Steffen P. & Steininger, Bertram I., 2021. "Real estate ETNs in strategic asset allocation," Working Paper Series 21/8, Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Real Estate and Construction Management & Banking and Finance.
    19. Frank J. Fabozzi & Robert J. Shiller & Radu S. Tunaru, 2020. "A 30-Year Perspective on Property Derivatives: What Can Be Done to Tame Property Price Risk?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(4), pages 121-145, Fall.
    20. Hui, Eddie C.M. & Chen, Jia & Chan, Ka Kwan Kevin, 2019. "House Hedging Model — which income group is more affected by risk?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 529(C), pages 1-1.
    21. Sheng Guo & William Hardin, 2014. "Wealth, Composition, Housing, Income and Consumption," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 221-243, February.
    22. Ortalo-Magne, Francois & Rady, Sven, 2002. "Tenure choice and the riskiness of non-housing consumption," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 266-279, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. M.I. Dröes & H Garretsen & W.J.J. Manshanden, 2012. "The Diversification Benefits of Free Trade in House Value," Working Papers 12-03, Utrecht School of Economics.
    2. Todd Sinai & Nicholas Souleles, 2013. "Can Owning a Home Hedge the Risk of Moving?," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 282-312, May.
    3. Rady, Sven & Ortalo-Magné, François, 2002. "Homeownership," Discussion Papers in Economics 28, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    4. Damian S. Damianov & Diego Escobari, 2021. "Getting on and Moving Up the Property Ladder: Real Hedging in the U.S. Housing Market Before and After the Crisis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1201-1237, December.
    5. Juerg Syz & Paolo Vanini & Marco Salvi, 2008. "Property Derivatives and Index-Linked Mortgages," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 23-35, January.
    6. François Ortalo-Magné & Andrea Prat, 2016. "Spatial Asset Pricing: A First Step," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 83(329), pages 130-171, January.
    7. Todd Sinai & Nicholas S. Souleles, 2005. "Owner-Occupied Housing as a Hedge Against Rent Risk," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(2), pages 763-789.
    8. Arzu Uluc, 2018. "Stabilising House Prices: the Role of Housing Futures Trading," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 587-621, May.
    9. Ming Pu & Gang-Zhi Fan & Seow Ong, 2012. "Heterogeneous Agents and the Indifference Pricing of Property Index Linked Swaps," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 543-569, May.
    10. Englund, Peter & Hwang, Min & Quigley, John M, 2002. "Hedging Housing Risk," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 24(1-2), pages 167-200, Jan.-Marc.
    11. Sousa, Ricardo M., 2009. "Wealth effects on consumption: evidence from the euro area," Working Paper Series 1050, European Central Bank.
    12. Yoshida, Jiro, 2017. "Stock Prices, Regional Housing Prices, and Aggregate Technology Shocks," HIT-REFINED Working Paper Series 72, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    13. Hui, Eddie C.M. & Chen, Jia & Chan, Ka Kwan Kevin, 2019. "House Hedging Model — which income group is more affected by risk?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 529(C), pages 1-1.
    14. Jansson, Thomas, 2013. "Housing Choices and Labor Income Risk," Working Paper Series 272, Sveriges Riksbank (Central Bank of Sweden).
    15. Steven Sheffrin & Tracy Turner, 2001. "Taxation and House-Price Uncertainty: Some Empirical Estimates," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 8(4), pages 621-636, August.
    16. Davidoff, Thomas, 2006. "Labor income, housing prices, and homeownership," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 209-235, March.
    17. Luca Benzoni & Pierre Collin-Dufresne & Robert S. Goldstein, 2005. "Portfolio Choice over the Life-Cycle in the Presence of 'Trickle Down' Labor Income," NBER Working Papers 11247, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Ortalo-Magne, Francois & Rady, Sven, 2002. "Tenure choice and the riskiness of non-housing consumption," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 266-279, September.
    19. Quigley, John M., 2006. "Real estate portfolio allocation: The European consumers' perspective," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 169-188, September.
    20. Mr. Nicolas R Blancher & François Haas & Mr. John Kiff & Ms. Oksana Khadarina & Mr. Paul S. Mills & Parmeshwar Ramlogan & Mr. William Lee & Ms. Yoon Sook Kim & Todd Groome & Mr. Shinobu Nakagawa, 2006. "The Limits of Market-Based Risk Transfer and Implications for Managing Systemic Risks," IMF Working Papers 2006/217, International Monetary Fund.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    portfolio risk; house price index; hedging;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E2 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment
    • G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:boc:bocoec:539. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/debocus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.