The effects of negative house price changes on migration: Evidence across U.S. housing downturns

I estimate the extent to which negative house price changes lower mobility for some homeowners. My identification strategy employs a reduced-form model that uses variation in state-year house price changes, as well as variation in a homeowner's exposure to house price changes, based on pre-existing leverage. I find that house price declines cause migration to decrease for homeowners that have low equity, but that there is no effect for the most leveraged homeowners. Differences in default costs across states do not appear to affect the mobility of homeowners in negative equity. Housing lock-in effects are larger in the most recent recession, affecting both in-state and interstate migration.