Abstract:
The evaluation of price expectations in consumer sentiment surveys is rather ambiguous. Time series in price expectations and time to buy from our continuous research in this field show that as long as prices can go up and can come down, people will try to beat higher prices of the future by buying now, and wait for lower prices in the future by postponing expenditure. Price expectations, generally speaking, can be different from price expectations of cars, houses, durables. Time to buy a house is compared with sales of houses in the late 70's. Trends, on new car sales in Holland, are related to time to buy a car in 1979 - 1982.
