Objective Housing Sales and Rent Prices in Representative Household Surveys: Implications for Wealth, Inequality, Housing Market, and Affordability Statistics

Abstract

Many economic analyses require hypothetical but realistic sales and rent prices for properties representative of the housing stock and reflecting current market conditions. To achieve this, we replace subjectively reported prices in a representative household survey in Luxembourg with objectified hedonic imputations informed by observable market data. Thus, we propose a powerful tool for assessing the health and affordability of housing markets, compiling housing-related statistics and simulating hypothetical scenarios. This approach also enables us to test for the reliability of survey responses. When switching to objectified values, we detect shifts in the wealth distribution, large regional variation in market indicators, and striking affordability concerns: only 18 percent of Luxembourg's renters could theoretically afford to purchase their inhabited dwellings given current market conditions. Further, participants' tendency to mis-estimate market values strongly correlates with tenure length and type, dwelling type, income, and wealth.