Economic Theory and Housing Market

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The core of economic theory is based on supply and demand. Demand is what consumers are willing to buy at any given price. Supply is what suppliers are willing to sell at a given price. We can then relate this to the housing market. There are factors, which can increase or decrease supply, e.g. cost and availability of resources, government tax etc. There are also many factors that affect demand, e.g. price of substitutes (flats), price of compliments (mortgage), etc. These factors can then either increase of decrease demand. THE HOUSING MARKET I will use the housing market to try and prove if different economic theories have elements of truth in it by looking at statistics and facts, or is it simply theoretical and unrealistic. THEORY ONE ---------- The first economic theory states that if real household income rises then demand for a good, therefore houses should increase. Although housing is seen more as a necessity, certain houses can also definitely be seen as luxurious. YEAR NUMBER OF HOUSES BOUGHT (000S) AVERAGE INCOME 1990 1400 11,184 1991 1300 12,103 1992 1128 12,824 1993 1191 13,405 1994 1279 13,863 1995 1311 15,636 1996 1243 16,519 1997 1440 17,713 1998 1347 19,057 1999 1470 19,641 2000 1499 Looking at the data we can nearly automatically see that the increase in income has as a result increased the demand for buying houses due to consumer confidence and spending. If they have more money then they believe that they are able to spend more and therefore take out a mortgage. THEORY TWO Compliments are two goods, which are bought in conjunction with each other, as they are dependant on one another, e.g. petrol and car. A not so obvious compliment
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