Kim, Jun-Hyung and Lewis, Alexander (2013-03), "Loss aversion and its effect on the housing list price: focusing on the dynamic reference point of loss," Journal of the Korean Real Estate Analysts Association, 19(1): 25-44. (in Korean)
Abstract
Loss averse behavior of homeowners has been demonstrated by several studies over the last decade. However, most treat the initial purchase price as the sole reference point against which sellers gauge loss. After reviewing the behavioral economics literature regarding alternative reference points, we surveyed homeowners in Seoul currently trying to sell their houses and analyzed the reference point used for their calculation of loss and its effect on their preferred list price. We found that the initial purchase price does not affect homeowners’ list price. Instead, the effects of peak price and recent prices are more statistically significant. This implies that the effect of loss aversion in Korean housing market may be so powerful that the housing transactions in Korea would drop much sharply when the housing price starts to decline.