This paper studies the transmission of the major shocks in the U.S. housing market in the 2000s to consumption and residential investment. Using geographically disaggregated data, I show that residential investment is more responsive to these shocks than consumption, as measured by elasticities and the implied contributions to GDP growth. I develop a structural life-cycle model featuring multiple types of housing investment to understand the large responses of residential investment. Consistent with the microdata, the model generates lumpy debt accumulation, lumpy housing investment and a strong correlation between mortgage borrowing and housing investment at the early stage of the life cycle. In the model, households move up the property ladder by increasing their mortgage debt after they have accumulated enough home equity. Since liquidity constraints and fixed costs prevent especially young homeowners from acquiring their desired home, shocks to their borrowing capacity have a large impact on residential investment.

本文研究了 2000 年代美国房地产市场的重大冲击对消费和住宅投资的传递。使用按地理划分的数据，我表明住宅投资对这些冲击的反应比消费更敏感，这通过弹性和对 GDP 增长的隐含贡献来衡量。我开发了一个具有多种住房投资类型的结构性生命周期模型，以了解住宅投资的巨大反应。与微观数据一致，该模型在生命周期的早期阶段产生了不规律的债务积累、不规律的住房投资以及抵押贷款与住房投资之间的强相关性。在该模型中，家庭在积累了足够的房屋净值后，通过增加抵押债务来提升财产阶梯。