{
  "title": "Housing Affordability: A New Dataset",
  "publication": "IMF Working Papers, December 1, 2023",
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  "summary": "The rapid increase in house prices in the past few years, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, raises concerns about housing affordability. The price-to-income ratio is a widely-used indicator of affordability, but does not take into account important factors such as the cost of financing.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Overview and Purpose",
      "content": "- Rapid increase in house prices in the past few years, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, raises concerns about housing affordability.\n- The price-to-income ratio is a widely-used indicator of affordability, but does not take into account important factors such as the cost of financing.\n- Aim: to construct a measure of housing affordability that takes financing and other factors into account for a large set of countries and long period of time."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Data Coverage and Index Definition",
      "content": "- Dataset covers an unbalanced panel of 40 countries over the period from 1970Q1 to 2021Q4.\n- For each country, the index measures the extent to which a median-income household can qualify for a mortgage loan to purchase an average-priced home."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Key Findings and Comparisons",
      "content": "- Constructed indices are compared to other readily-available measures of affordability (for example, the price-to-income ratio) to gauge performance.\n- The evolution of the indices over time is examined to understand relevant drivers of housing affordability."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Analysis and Methods",
      "content": "- Regression analysis is used to assess the extent to which government housing programs could contribute to improving affordability."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Subjects and Keywords (as listed)",
      "content": "- Subjects: Expenditure, Financial institutions, Housing, Housing prices, Income, Mortgages, National accounts, Prices\n- Keywords: affordability index, Baltics, Eastern Europe, Global, government housing program, household income, Housing, housing affordability, Housing prices, Income, indices in selected country, Mortgages, real estate markets\n\n---\n\n Content in this bundle\n\n- Working Paper\n  - Working Paper (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - Working Paper (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n\n---\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/wp/issues/2023/12/01/housing-affordability-a-new-dataset-541910"
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    "Authors: Nina Biljanovska, Chenxu Fu, Deniz O Igan",
    "Published: December 1, 2023",
    "Series: IMF Working Papers",
    "DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9798400259746.001",
    "Rapid increase in house prices in the past few years, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, raises concerns about housing affordability.",
    "The price-to-income ratio is a widely-used indicator of affordability, but does not take into account important factors such as the cost of financing.",
    "Aim: to construct a measure of housing affordability that takes financing and other factors into account for a large set of countries and long period of time.",
    "Dataset covers an unbalanced panel of 40 countries over the period from 1970Q1 to 2021Q4.",
    "For each country, the index measures the extent to which a median-income household can qualify for a mortgage loan to purchase an average-priced home.",
    "Constructed indices are compared to other readily-available measures of affordability (for example, the price-to-income ratio) to gauge performance.",
    "The evolution of the indices over time is examined to understand relevant drivers of housing affordability.",
    "Regression analysis is used to assess the extent to which government housing programs could contribute to improving affordability.",
    "Subjects: Expenditure, Financial institutions, Housing, Housing prices, Income, Mortgages, National accounts, Prices",
    "Keywords: affordability index, Baltics, Eastern Europe, Global, government housing program, household income, Housing, housing affordability, Housing prices, Income, indices in selected country, Mortgages, real estate markets",
    "**Working Paper**"
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