摘要：Every year during the second and thirdquarters (the “hot season”) housing
markets in the UK and the US experience systematic above-trend increases in both
prices and transactions. During the fourth and first quarters (the “cold
season”), house prices and transactions fall below trend. We propose a
search-and-matching framework that sheds new light on the mechanisms governing
housing market fluctuations. The model has a “thick-market” effect that can
generate substantial differences in the volume of transactions and prices across
seasons, with the extent of seasonality in prices depending crucially on the
bargaining power of sellers. The model can quantitatively mimic the seasonal
fluctuations in transactions and prices observed in the UK and the US.
关键词：housing market, thick-market effects, search-and-matching, seasonality, house
price fluctuations
