Abstract

Using spectral analysis, prices of two Irish house vintages are investigated for hidden periodicities. What emerges is a major periodicity consistent with an Irish business cycle. A further hidden intermediate cycle in second-hand housing, that is common to all areas of Eire but featured not nearly so prominently in new housing, is posited to be related to life events and space stress.
By revisiting the housing market more often, the repeat buyer injects additional volatility in house prices. It is proposed that housing policy should be directed at reducing the number of repeat buyers as a means of deflating property bubbles.