Identifying Periods of US Housing Market Explosivity

In this paper we set out to date-stamp periods of US housing price explosivity for the period 1830 – 2013. We make use of several robust techniques that allow us to identify such periods by determining when prices start to exhibit explosivity with respect to its past behaviour and when it recedes to long term stable prices. The first technique used is the Generalized sup ADF (GSADF) test procedure developed by Phillips, Shi, and Yu (2013), which allows the recursive identification of multiple periods of price explosivity. The second approach makes use of Robinson (1994)’s test statistic, comparing the null of a unit root process against the alternative of specified orders of fractional integration. Our analysis date-stamps several periods of US house price explosivity, allowing us to contextualize its historic relevance.

C22, G15, G14

GSADF, Bubble, Structural Breaks, Random Walk, Explosivity