Investigating the Impact of Behavioral Factors on the Iranian Housing Price

The hyper volatilities of the housing market and the reasons for the emergence of boom-and-bust cycles cannot be explained by traditional theories. Recent studies indicate that behavioral factors are responsible for market volatility in the financial and real estate sectors, making it impossible to comprehend housing market events if they are neglected. According to this new viewpoint, the main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of two major behavioral principles, namely herd behavior and overoptimism, on the Iranian housing market. The seasonal data of Iran’s housing market from 2004:4 to 2021:5 and the bounds testing approach to cointegration of Pesran et al. (2001) based on the ARDL model have been utilized in this research. Since herd behavior is a hidden unobservable variable, Hwang & Salmon’s (2004) method was employed to quantify it. The quantification of herd behavior in the housing market demonstrates observable changes over time, confirming the methodology employed to quantify it in this study. The results of the cointegration test demonstrate that the correct variables influencing house prices were chosen and that there is a cointegration relationship between the research variables. Also, the results of this study reveal that behavioral components are among the most important determinants of housing prices, and that both herd behavior and overoptimism have a positive and statistically significant effect on housing prices. In addition to behavioral considerations, the results of this study indicate that economic factors such as real volume of liquidity, real GDP, and informal market exchange rate also influence housing prices, with all three variables having a positive effect on real housing prices.