The Impact of Population Aging on Housing Prices: A Comparative Study of Singapore and the U.S.

Abstract

Population aging and its economic impact have been receiving increasing attention in many countries around the world. This study offers an analysis of the impact of aging on the housing prices in Singapore relative to the U.S. as the benchmark. The study uses semiannual series over the period of 1998 to 2019 with the age subgroups organized in 5-year intervals. The literature contains conflicting arguments on the impacts of aging on housing prices. Based on observations made for Singapore and the U.S., this study supports the arguments that the elderly part of a population has a damping effect on housing prices. A novel behavioral divergence between Singapore and the U.S. emerges when the analysis focuses on the impact of the finer age subgroups on housing prices in the two countries. The “turning age”, which is defined as the approximate cut-off age when the impact of aging on housing prices turns from positive to negative, is approximately 55 years old in Singapore and 60 years old in the U.S.

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