The Honeycomb Cycle in Real Estate.

A change in market conditions can trigger a cyclical response in the housing market, a cycle in both prices and number of transactions. This is caused not only by production lags but also by the reactions of buyers and sellers. The fact that many buyers are also sellers, and vice versa, has a special effect on this cycle. In this paper a theory of this cycle in prices and transactions is developed and empirically tested. It is found that volume changes are much more closely related statistically to changes in market conditions than are price changes. A clear cycle is found in two of the four towns studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]