RDP 2004-08: Housing Construction Cycles and Interest Rates Appendix A: Data Sources

Laura Berger-Thomson and Luci Ellis

October 2004

Table A1: Data Definitions
Series Definition
Dwelling investment Gross fixed capital formation in dwellings at constant prices
Structure prices Implicit price deflator for GFCF in dwellings
House prices Median/mean price of dwellings at current prices
Housing starts Number of new residential building starts
Housing stock Total stock of dwellings
Number of households Total number of households
Permanent income Sum of non-durables and services consumption at constant prices
General price level Level of the consumer price index
Construction costs Weighted average of house building materials prices and labour costs at current prices
Policy interest rate Interest rate targeted by central bank

Notes: The consumer price index for Australia excludes the effect of the GST. The weights for the construction cost variables are taken from countries' input-output tables. In the UK, we use household consumption expenditure as a proxy for permanent income. Some housing and demographic data are only available for Great Britain (i.e. excluding Northern Ireland) rather than for the entire UK. We have therefore had to rescale and interpolate these data to obtain a consistent data set for the UK. Details of these adjustments are available from the authors.
Table A2: Statistical Sources
Abbreviation Full title
ABS Australian Bureau of Statistics
BEA Bureau of Economic Analysis
BLS Bureau of Labor Statistics
BIS Bank for International Settlements
CB US Census Bureau
CMHC Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
DTI UK Department of Trade and Industry
NAR National Association of Realtors
NIDSD Northern Ireland Department of Social Development
ODPM Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
Table A3: Data Sources
Series Australia Canada UK US
Dwelling investment ABS Cat No
5206.0		 Stat Can
038-0010		 NS DFEG BEA
Structure prices ABS Cat No
5206.0		 Stat Can
038-0010		 NS DFEG, DFDK BEA
House prices CBA/HIA; Commonwealth Treasury; REIA BIS Nationwide NAR med. existing 1-family homes
Housing starts ABS Cat No
5750.0, 5752.0		 CMHC ODPM 211; NS FCAB, CTOR, CTOV CB C20
Housing stock ABS Cat No
5752.0, Census		 Stat Can v227368; CMHC ODPM 101, 241;
NS FCAB, CTOR, CTOV		 CB Housing Vacancy Survey 7
Number of households ABS Cat No
3101.0, Census		 Stat Can v227374 ODPM 401; NIDSD CB Housing Vacancy Survey 7
Permanent income ABS Cat No
5206.0		 Stat Can
380-0009		 NS ABJR BEA
General price level ABS Cat No
6401.0; RBA		 Stat Can v735319 NS CHAW BLS
CUSR0000SA0
Construction costs ABS Cat No
6427.0, 6302.0, 5209.0		 Stat Can v734362, v4331335, v4331326, 329-0038 NS Labour Market Trends E.2, LNMQ; DTI BLS wpusop2200, EEU20152006
Policy interest rate RBA Bank of Canada Bank of England Federal Reserve

Notes: See Table A2 for abbreviations. Relevant catalogue, series and table identifiers are italicised. All series are seasonally adjusted, using conventional methods in Eviews where necessary. For consistency, annualised data are converted to quarterly values where appropriate.