The housing market is thin. Buyers search and bargain in local housing markets, often paying different prices for nearly identical houses. Housing search literature has documented the role of local information, search cost, and the anchoring effect in determining housing transaction prices....

This research investigated the growing numbers of middle-aged and older Australians who are carrying mortgage debt into retirement and paying off higher levels of debt relative to house values and income. Between 1987 and 2015, mortgage debt among older mortgagors increased by 600 per cent (from...