Explaining the Spatial Variation in Homeownership Rates: Results for German Regions

Lerbs, Oliver; Oberst, Christian

doi:10.1080/00343404.2012.685464

Cited by 35 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 59 publications

(30 reference statements)

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“…We first cluster the whole sample of municipalities into the 72 official Western German planning regions, which are delineated based on commuting patterns and can be interpreted as regional labor markets (Lerbs and Oberst, 2014). We then compute the unweighted average homeownership rates of municipalities belonging to each region and finally group municipality-regions according to the average rate.…”

Section: High-and Low-homeownership Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Local Governments Tax Homeowner Communities Differently?

2017

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Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW. Do Local Governments Tax Homeowner CommunitiesDifferently? * Roland FüssOliver Lerbs This version: September 2017Abstract This paper investigates whether and how strongly the share of homeowners in a community affects residential property taxation by local governments. Different from renters, homeowners bear the full property tax burden irrespective of local market conditions, and the tax is more salient to them. "Homeowner communities" may hence oppose high property taxes in order to protect their housing wealth. Using granular spatial data from a complete housing inventory in the 2011 German Census and historical war damages as a source of exogenous variation in local homeownership, we provide empirical evidence that otherwise identical jurisdictions charge significantly lower property taxes when the share of homeowners in their population is higher. This result is invariant to local market conditions, which suggests tax salience as the key mechanism behind this effect. We find positive spatial dependence in tax multipliers, indicative of property tax mimicking by local governments. Do Local Governments Tax Homeowner CommunitiesDifferently?Abstract This paper investigates whether and how strongly the share of homeowners in a community affects residential property taxation by local governments. Different from renters, homeowners bear the full property tax burden irrespective of local market conditions, and the tax is more salient to them. "Homeowner communities" may hence oppose high property taxes in order to protect their housing wealth. Using granular spatial data from a complete housing inventory in the 2011 German Census and historical war damages as a source of exogenous variation in local homeownership, we provide empirical evidence that otherwise identical jurisdictions charge significantly lower property taxes when the share of homeowners in their population is higher. This result is invariant to local market conditions, which suggests tax salience as the key mechanism behind this effect. We find positive spatial dependence in tax multipliers, indicative of property tax mimicking by local governments.JEL classification: D72, H20, H31, H71, R31.

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Section: High-and Low-homeownership Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Local Governments Tax Homeowner Communities Differently?

2017

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“…12 For a detailed discussion of the link between relative regional house prices, credit constraints and homeownership, see Lerbs and Oberst (2011a). These authors also discuss the trade-off between mortgage market stability and housing affordability.…”

Section: National Trends In New Homebuildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

House prices, housing development costs, and the supply of new single-family housing in German counties and cities

Lerbs

2014

Journal of Property Research

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The results suggest that both higher prices for existing homes and recent increases in development costs are positively associated with local single-family home permit rates. Instead, higher levels of development costs turn out to dampen construction activity. The average local price elasticity of new single-family home supply is considerably less than one, with surprising differences across the urban hierarchy.

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“…Thus, households rent until they finished saving sufficient equity for the down payment (Stone, 2006). Lerbs and Oberst (2014) employed a cross-sectional data analysis in 96 German regions to analyze the interregional variability of homeownership rates. The relative price of owning versus renting and the affordability of owner-occupied housing play a crucial role in explaining why homeownership rates vary substantially among Germany.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%