Housing and tax-deferred retirement accounts

Arbeitspapier

Assets in tax-deferred retirement accounts (TDA) and housing are two major components of household portfolios. In this paper, we develop a life-cycle model to examine the interaction between households' use of TDA and their housing decisions. The model generates life-cycle patterns of home ownership and the composition of net worth that are broadly consistent with the data from the Survey of Consumer Finances. We find that TDA promotes home ownership, as households take advantage of the preferential tax treatments for both TDA and home ownership. They substitute TDA assets for home equity by accumulating wealth in TDA and making smaller down payments (taking out bigger mortgages); consequently, they become homeowners earlier in their lives. On the other hand, housing-related policies, such as a minimum down payment requirement and mortgage interest deductibility, affect households' housing decisions more than their use of TDA.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Bank of Canada Staff Working Paper ; No. 2016-24

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis ; Household Saving; Personal Finance ; Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making‡ ; Macroeconomics: Consumption; Saving; Wealth ; Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies; includes inheritance and gift taxes ; Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Housing Demand
• Subject: Economic models ; Housing

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Ho, Anson T. Y. ; Zhou, Jie
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Bank of Canada
• (where): Ottawa
• (when): 2016

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.34989/swp-2016-24
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/148131
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET