Household Mortgage Refinancing Decisions are Neighbor Influenced
32 Pages Posted: 9 Dec 2016 Last revised: 6 Feb 2021
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Household Mortgage Refinancing Decisions are Neighbor Influenced
Household Mortgage Refinancing Decisions are Neighbor Influenced
Date Written: Feb 5, 2021
Abstract
Can social influence effects help explain regional heterogeneity in refinancing activity? Neighborhood social influence effects have been shown to affect publicly observable decisions, but their role in private decisions, like refinancing, remains unclear. Using precisely geolocated data and a nearest-neighbor research design, we find that households are 7\% more likely to refinance if a neighbor within 50 meters has recently refinanced. Consistent with a word-of-mouth mechanism, social influence effects are weaker when neighbors are farther away and non-existent for non-occupants. Our results illustrate the importance of the proximate community for household wealth accumulation and the transmission of monetary policy.
Keywords: Household Finance, Mortgages, Peer Effects, Neighbors
JEL Classification: D12, D14, D71, H31, R23
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation