Moving and Housing Expenditure: Transaction Costs and Disequilibrium

Abstract

The paper emphasizes initially the effects of moving transaction costs on the potential effect of government rent subsidy programs. As a concomitant to this analysis, the paper reaffirms the low income elasticities of housing expenditure among low-income renters found by others. Moving transaction costs are high on average among renters in our sample but vary widely between geographic regions and evidently vary a great deal among families as well. By our measure, transaction costs reflect monetary and especially non-monetary gains and losses associated with moving. Moving transaction costs in conjunction with low income elasticities make government lump-sum transfers very ineffective in increasing housing expenditure among low-income renters.