Emotions Versus Finance

The Washington Post looks at how ego and vanity are affecting the housing crash…er, slowdown.

Evidence is mounting that people set prices, particularly for housing, as much on ego and self-image as on an objective review of the market. That’s one reason for the phenomenon known as “sticky prices” — home sellers who won’t cut their demands enough to make a deal. It helps explain why the unsold inventory of homes has risen so high, and why, despite this rise, home prices in the Washington area have fallen only slightly. There were 24,741 homes for sale in September in Washington and the close-in suburbs, up from 13,950 a year earlier.
Economic researchers have found that emotions are a bigger influence than was previously believed in how people make financial decisions. For a long time, economists believed that human beings made decisions like robots, that people applied simple logic in making financial choices. But a body of research developed over the past two decades, known as neuroeconomics or behavioral economics, has shed light on how powerful a role the unconscious mind plays. New imaging technology, meanwhile, is allowing scientists to peer inside people’s brains while they wrestle with financial decisions.
These studies have illuminated a few key concepts: Many people will pass up sure profits for illusory ones. Some will turn down profits if they believe someone else is unfairly profiting more. Some will even refuse to sell if they believe they may come to regret it, because fear of future regret can be as powerful a motivator as money in the pocket today.
In other words, people will cling to prices they recall from a brighter day, even when market conditions have changed; they will walk away from a sale if they feel the buyer is getting too good a deal at their expense; and they are terrified that [if they sell now] the market will rebound and they will feel like fools.

Posted by on November 5th, 2006 at 3:15 pm


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