We construct a Housing Purchase Intention Index (HPII) using the Baidu Search Index, which captures online search behavior directly reflecting households’ housing purchase intentions. We assess the predictive power of the HPII for the growth rate of housing transaction volume and further examine factors influencing housing purchase intention. The results show that the HPII has significant predictive ability and enhances real-time forecasting accuracy, highlighting the role of search behavior as a behavioral signal in the housing market. We also find that housing purchase intention is shaped by policy, economic, demographic, and supply factors. Specifically, purchase restriction policies exhibit an inverted U-shaped effect; moderate mortgage-rate hikes dampen purchase intention, while persistent increases may induce anticipatory buying. In addition, rising wages, increasing population concentration, and expanded residential land supply consistently strengthen housing purchase intention. These findings provide new behavioral evidence on the drivers of housing demand and underscore the value of search-based indicators for understanding household decision-making in the real estate market.

内容提要: 本文针对近年来我国房地产市场价格持续攀升但市场需求不降反升、银行信贷资金迅速向房地产业集中以及房地产市场发展与经济增长的作用等问题，以全国和各省、市、自治区的面板数据，进行了实证分析。分析结果显示，我国房地产市场供给约束问题非常严重，尤其是考虑到居民收入增长因素后，房地产市场的供求矛盾十分突出；银行房地产开发贷款和个人住房贷款强有力地支撑了房地产市场的供求；房地产市场的发展也拉动了经济的增长，但这一作用没有我们想象的大。因此，目前我国针对房地产市场的宏观调控和各项监管措施，都应该从供求两方面出发，在金融等政策上要保持连续性，并加强制度建设，更好地发挥市场机制的作用。 Abstract: Recent years, with the rising price, the housing demands also rise quickly, which is strange to the common sense of economics. In addition, the relationship between banking sector and housing industry has become more and close, and the growth of housing industry pull the economic growth dramatically. Based on the panel data of the nation and provinces, we try an empirical study on the topics above. The empirical results show that at least in the nowadays China’s market, one of the most sever problem in the real estate market is the constraints of the housing supply compared to the demand if we consider the effects of the resid ents’income growth. Bank loans are maybe the most effective factor pulling the housing industry growth, both on the supply side and the demand. To our surprise, the effect of housing consumption on the economic growth is less than we have assumed, considering the cyclical changes of the economy. . So we draw the followed policy implications in the further macroeconomic managements: we must take the measures directly to both the supply and the demand sides, keep the policies’ continuity, strengthen the institutional progress and make the market mechanism more effective.

Optimal Timing and Optimal Intensity of Real Estate Development Abstract The traditional real option approach treat firms as price taker and at the same time the firm is assumed to have monopoly power because no competition or future competitive entry is not considered in most of the real option literature. In this article we assume the real estate developer has monopoly power in a real estate submarket, given the nature of real estate market. The developer makes the timing decision as well as the intensity decision at the same time. We model the developer decision in the framework of the real option and derived the optimal timing and optimal intensity of real estate development of a certain real estate project. Our Result shows that not only the uncertainty but also the low rent sensitivity of housing demand will lead to defer of real estate development. And both the timing decision and intensity decision are sensitive to the demand factors besides the uncertainty effect.