Villamarknaden under 2020

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore how the persistent health shock that is covid-19 impacted people’s everyday life as it pertains to short-term consumption and priorities. This is conducted by studying how the housing market in Sweden was affected by the crisis during 2020, more particularly how the house prices were affected in selected municipalities in the metropolitan regions and a region from the north. The aim of the study is to separate the different effects in an attempt to explain what factors, related to covid-19, led to changes in housing market price levels. Data was collected monthly from 2018 through 2020 in order to observe the trend for house prices during 2020 compared to pre pandemic house prices. The paper controlled for mortgage rate, unemployment, observed geographical differences as well as the effect the spread of virus had on house prices in different areas. The method used is OLS regressions for cross sectional data from Arbetsförmedlingen, Folkhälsomyndigheten, Svensk Mäklarstatistik och Statistiska Centralbyrån. The findings show that prices on housing increased in all of Sweden during 2020. It also showed that in the fall, during the second wave of the spread, prices rose significantly. The result also indicates that the prices in the metropolitan municipalities and the commuting municipalities affected the prices most positively compared to other types of municipalities. Surprisingly, as the degree of spread rose, so did the price of houses.