Anwar Nasution: This paper analyzes the characteristics of international housing cycle co-movement of six East Asian countries for the period from 2001:Q1 to 2010:Q1. The six countries are China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. This paper is rich in econometric techniques, but does not provide a sensible explanation on what causes the cycles in each country or how the problems are linked and transmitted to other countries. The housing sector and real estate sector in general belong to the non-traded sector of the economy. The non-traded goods and services are only consumed where they are being produced and, because of this, they are neither exported nor imported.
The demand for housing is affected by demographic and economic factors. In countries such as the United States, the demographic factors—the increasing demand or shortage for housing—is, among others, determined by the number of immigrants and the baby boom generation. In...