Internet use and the duration of buying and selling in the residential housing market, economic incentives and voting

In this study we examine the impact of internet use on the duration of non-sequential search in the housing market. We develop a model of partial equilibrium in the housing market which suggests an ambiguous effect on the search duration when internet resources are employed in the search. In this model, the impact of using the internet can be viewed as increasing the search efficiency, or as altering the distribution of potential matches from which the home buyer can choose. We use data from the 2000 Home Buyer and Seller Survey collected by the National Association of Realtors. While theory suggests there might be an increase or a decrease in search times when using on-line resources in the search, in this data we find a tendency for internet use to increase the duration of home search relative to employing more conventional search methods. We use a simultaneous equations approach for the analysis of the impact of internet listing on the duration until sale in the residential housing market. In this model, the time on the market and the selling price are jointly determined, once asking price and the method used for the listing of the property is chosen by the home seller or agent. We use data from the 2000 Home Buyer and Seller Survey collected by the National Association of Realtors. We find that using the internet to list a house increases its time on the market. The results presented here are consistent our with previous findings pertaining to the use of the internet and the duration of search until a buyer locates a home to purchase. These results, together with the findings of the present study show evidence for a model of the housing market where all buyers are sellers.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Economics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2002

Author dc:creator

• D'Urso, Victoria Tanusheva, 1975-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• William Wheaton and James Snyder.

• Economics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/16884

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/16884