Search and Matching in the Housing Market

Housing markets clear, in part, through the time that buyers and sellers spend on the market. We show that demand generally leads to shorter seller time on the market and fewer homes that buyers visit, while buyer time on the market is much less sensitive to demand. Furthermore, seller time on the market and homes visited are much more sensitive to demand growth than its level, consistent with sellers responding to demand with a lag. Those same findings also provide an estimate of the elasticity of the matching function.