THE IMPACT OF CRIME ON APARTMENT PRICES: EVIDENCE FROM STOCKHOLM,SWEDEN

This study uses data of about 9,000 apartment sales in Stockholm, Sweden, to assess the impact of crime on property prices. The study employs hedonic pricing modelling to estimate the impact of crime controlling for other factors (property and neighbourhood characteristics). Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to combine apartment sales by coordinates with offences, land use characteristics and demographic data of the population. The novelty of this research is threefold. First, it explores a set of land use attributes created by spatial techniques in GIS in combination with detailed geographical data in hedonic pricing modelling. Second, the effect of crime in neighbouring zones at one place can be measured by incorporating spatial lagged variables of offence rates into the model. Third, the study provides evidence of the impact of crime on housing prices in a capital city of a traditional welfare state, information otherwise lacking in the international literature. Our results indicate that apartment prices in a specific area are strongly affected by crime in its neighbouring zones, regardless of crime type. When offences were broken down by types, residential burglary, theft, vandalism, assault and robbery individually had a significant negative effect on property values. However, for residential burglary such an effect is not homogenous across space, and apartment prices in central areas are often less discounted by being exposed to crime than those in the city's outskirts.     

COMPENSATION FOR COMMUTES IN THE LAND AND LABOR MARKETS: SOME EVIDENCE FROM THE TOKYO METROPOLITAN AREA*

ABSTRACT. Recent research suggests that in nonmonocentric cities compensation for commutes takes the form of both lower housing prices and higher wages. This paper develops a random utility model that predicts the probability of an actor choosing to commute between each residence and job in a metropolitan area conditional on the observed location of housing units and job sites. The model allows commuting time, origin-specific amenities, land prices, destination-specific amenities and wages to influence actors' choices. We estimate the model using maximum likelihood and generalized least squares techniques and data on commuting between each of 38 origin and 15 destination jurisdictions in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The empirical results show that, all else equal, a one percent increase in commuting time reduces the probability that a route (origin-destination combination) will be chosen by almost five percent. Origin-specific amenities are not completely capitalized into land prices and destination-specific amenities are not completely capitalized into wages. Desirable residential amenities include school quality and a low ratio of day to night population. Desirable workplace amenities include a large share of white collar jobs and a high density of employment.     

The Liberalization of the Land Market in Spain: The 1998 Reform of Urban Planning Legislation

Against a general climate of liberalization, the Spanish Government has made a concerted effort to bring about a reduction in house prices. A legislative reform in April 1998 has sought to liberalize land and planning, through (a) refining the category of land previously excluded from development to enable residential development to take place, (b) allowing for greater flexibility of land uses and building controls, and (c) reducing administrative controls. This paper discusses the extent to which such reforms are likely to meet their anticipated objectives, resulting in beneficial effects in the land and housing markets, as well as the territorial impact of such reforms from a sustainability perspective.     

Exploring the land development process and its impact on urban form in Hamilton, Ontario

The form of many Canadian cities has dramatically evolved over the past six decades due to urban sprawl. Several patterns can characterize this evolution including unlimited horizontal expansion of the city, leapfrog, and low‐density residential development at the outskirts, and widespread strip commercial and power centre retail development. Hamilton, Ontario is an example of a Canadian city that has experienced suburbanization and sprawled development for several decades. However, the nature of this sprawled development is unclear and its impact on urban form is not entirely understood. In this article, several hypotheses pertaining to sprawled land development and urban form are postulated and tested. The tests rely on point source data of the developed land parcels in Hamilton during the period 1950–2003. A number of spatial statistics techniques, including kernel estimation and complete spatial randomness (CSR) K‐function tests, are employed to examine the emerging nature of urban form. We hypothesize that while the city has been sprawling, the ongoing land development process is leading urban form into multinucleation. To support this assumption, we further hypothesize the existence of an interdependent spatial relationship between residential and commercial land uses at the emerging nuclei. Accordingly, we examine the strength of co‐clustering among these land use activities over time. The findings indicate that while the city has been sprawling, several consequent urban nuclei with mixed land use activities have been emerging and become more visible in recent years. This is an indication that the city's form is progressively becoming multinuclear. Furthermore, the estimates for the 1990s indicate interdependence between the locational patterns of residential and commercial land development. Co‐clustering between these two types of land uses is bi‐directional and occurs at a time lag of three to seven years. These findings affirm the existence of interdependence between land use activities at the observed nuclei, which support the emergence of a multinucleation.     

The external effects of inner-city shopping centers: Evidence from the Netherlands

Shopping center redevelopment is inevitable to remain attractive for consumers. In this paper, we investigate the external effects of shopping center redevelopment on nearby residential property prices. Using a difference-in-difference empirical framework, we find the redevelopment has positive external effects on nearby property prices. We find the price of a property located next to a redeveloped shopping center increases by 1.43% on average just after redevelopment. Our results indicate that these positive external effects wear off rather rapidly across space and over time. This suggests that shopping center redevelopment plays a substantial, but limited, role in combating neighborhood deprivation.     

The stretched rubber band: banks,houses, debt and vulnerability in Australia

This article analyses the development of residential capitalism and financialisation in Australia. It outlines the series of economic vulnerabilities developing in the financial system, centred on household debt and inflated property markets. It then analyses why policy-makers have done so little to restrict the growth of household debt and house prices. I argue that financial policy-makers have underestimated the financial vulnerabilities building up in Australia – as evidenced by the slow take-up of macroprudential policies. I outline four reasons: first, the excellent profit performance of the major banks; second, the policy predilection for idealised economic liberal regulation; third, the development of a politico-housing complex; and, finally, the growing role of household debt in ameliorating distributional conflict by underpinning growth.     

城市住宅的生态区位探析

在评析传统的住宅经济区位论的基础上,文章提出了居住环境的生态价值对住宅区位的重要意义,进而从经济因素和环境因素两个角度提出了城市住宅的生态区位模型。并以上海市为例分析了环境生态价值对商品住宅价格的影响,以及对未来住宅区位的几点启示。     

大都市边缘住宅开发区土地价值提升动态评估——以广州市南村住宅开发区为例

大都市边缘区住宅开发是大多数开发商的可能选择。此类开发区的土地利用性质和利用强度、地域空间结构及地理景观等方面都与城市中心区有着根本的区别,其价值处于高度动态发展中,地价迅速提升成为必然。本文首先剖析大都市边缘住宅区土地价值提升的可能性,并探讨了该类型的小区土地价值提升的评价思路、方法、对象及其参评指标体系确定等问题,最后将评估方法应用于广州市南村开发区进行了实例研究。     

SEARCH FRICTIONS,UNEMPLOYMENT, AND HOUSING IN CITIES: THEORY AND POLICIES

We propose an urban search‐matching model with land development. Wages, unemployment, prices of housing and land are endogenously determined. We characterize the steady‐state equilibrium and then discuss the issue of efficiency. To explore interactions among markets, we implement comparative static analysis. We also consider three policies: an entry‐cost policy that reduces firms' entry, a transportation policy that reduces commuting costs, and a housing policy that decreases rental prices. We find that the transportation and housing policies are more efficient if the unemployment rate is low, while the entry‐cost policy is more efficient if the unemployment rate is high.     

THE IMPACT OF STATE LAND-USECONTROLS ON RESIDENTIAL LAND VALUES

In this paper, we examine the effects of state land-use controls on the aggregate demand and supply of residential land. Previous studies have examined the effect of land-use regulation on housing prices using single-equation estimation. We estimate a three-equation intejurisdidional supply-demand model of land-use controls. Our results suggest that land-use regulations have a significant impact on both the demand and supply of residentid land as expected.     

长春市居住与工业空间演进的耦合性测度及影响因素

以长春市为研究对象,基于用地现状图等数据,借助ArcGIS软件,采用斑块聚合指数、标准差椭圆、核密度估计等研究方法,对1995-2013年长春市居住与工业空间演进的耦合性进行了测度,发现： ①长春市居住、工业与城市用地分布的“离散化”趋势明显,其中居住用地的斑块聚合指数波动幅度较大;②从居住与工业用地“中心-外围”分布特征来看,三环以内居住与工业用地呈现明显的“逆协同”演变规律,二者的用地密度变化表现出明显的差异性;③从居住与工业用地格局演进来看,二者布局的耦合度呈下降趋势。从成长路径依赖、政府调控引导、市场经济驱动、科技创新带动、空间主体的决策等六个方面分析了影响居住与工业空间演进耦合性的影响因素。     

Smart growth strategies,transportation and urban sprawl: simulated futures for Hamilton,Ontario

North American cities have undergone dramatic changes over the last century. Locations that were once inconvenient have become accessible through extensive road networks leading to population decentralization from the traditional urban centre to suburbia, creating polycentric sprawls from once monocentric communities. Hamilton, Ontario is one such city. The decentralization and urban decline of the city is widely attributed to sprawling development. This change in the sociospatial structure creates challenges for transportation planners as we see greater automobile dependency, greater commuting distances and increased congestion. Smart growth policies such as urban residential intensification (URI) aim to increase population densities in the urban core. This exploratory study estimates the benefits of such policies from a transportation aspect. It is predicted that the City of Hamilton will experience household growth of approximately 80,000 households over the period 2005–2031. Using IMULATE, an integrated urban transportation and land‐use model, a variety of development scenarios model this anticipated growth. Changes in vehicular emissions, traffic congestion and energy consumption as a result of URI are examined. Models of the land‐use/transportation relationship demonstrate how increasing population densities within a city's urban centre drastically reduce congestion, emissions and gasoline consumption.     

RESEARCH BRIEFING: EU accession and the Bulgarian real estate market

Accession of Bulgaria to the European Union (EU) is expected to result in an increase in the prices of all types of real estate as changes are expected to differ across the segments of the national real-estate market. Property prices have been influenced primarily by local demand, government policies and the perception that EU accession is promoting investment. It is likely that prices of flats will further differentiate, the market for office space will stabilize, the provision of infrastructure will importantly influence prices in holiday resorts and of industrial estates, and agricultural land prices will upsurge initially.     

Hedonic pricing analysis of the influence of urban green spaces onto residential prices: the case of Leipzig,Germany

In the light of global urbanization and biodiversity loss, ecosystem services provided by urban green spaces (UGS) are becoming increasingly important, not least as a recovery and recreation opportunity for citizens. The valuation of UGS is significant for urban planners, who make decisions on the creation or removal of UGS. We analysed the influence of UGS on residential property prices in Leipzig, Germany, by applying a hedonic pricing analysis. This analysis complements the existing literature by considering both sale and rental prices for flats and houses; moreover, the shape of UGS is taken into account explicitly; finally, it is the first study in Germany to analyse UGS in hedonic studies to such an extent. The results demonstrate that the size of the nearest UGS has a stronger impact on prices compared to the distance from it. With respect to shape, we found that the simpler the UGS shape, the higher the prices. Although we find an impact of UGS on prices, the impact is smaller than that of other characteristics. The proposed valuation approach and obtained results inform urban planners regarding the design of new UGS and raise awareness about potential intended and unintended economic and social effects.     

Do land use restrictions increase restaurant quality and diversity?

There is significant evidence that restrictions on residential land use reduce housing supply, increase house prices, and limit inflows of low‐income households. Local decision‐makers often argue that their efforts are mere attempts to preserve local amenities. We provide evidence that there is some truth to this claim: that residents of cities with more restrictions on land use appear to have access to higher‐quality and more diverse restaurants. In the process, we develop measures of restaurant quality based on organically generated data that, while strongly correlated with expert assessments, are more easily calculated at high frequencies and levels of geographic granularity.     

Immigration,new religious symbols,and the dynamics of neighborhoods

Last decades' non-western immigration to Europe has resulted in culturally and religiously more diverse populations in many countries. One manifestation of this diversification is new features in the cityscape. Using a quasiexperimental approach, in which an unexpected political process that led way to the first public call to prayer from a mosque in Sweden is combined with rich, daily, information on housing sales and detailed monthly information on internal migration, this paper examines how one such new feature affects neighborhood dynamics. While our results indicate that the calls to prayer increased house prices closer to the mosque, we find no evidence of increased residential segregation between natives and immigrants.     

Interacting agents, spatial externalities and the evolution of residential land use patterns

We develop a model of land use conversion that incorporateslocal spillover effects among spatially distributed agents.The model is used to test the hypothesis that fragmented patternsof development in rural-urban fringe areas could be due to negativeexternalities that create a ‘repelling’ effect amongresidential land parcels. Identification of the hypothesizedinteraction effect is complicated by unobserved, spatially correlatedheterogeneity. Using an identification strategy that boundsthe interaction effect from above, we find empirical evidencethat is consistent with a theory of negative interactions amongrecently developed residential subdivisions in exurban Maryland.The result offers an alternative explanation for low densitysprawl to that which is frequently posited in the economicsliterature and one with potentially quite different efficiencyimplications.     

TARIFF PROTECTION IN AN OPEN SPATIAL ECONOMY*

Spatial pricing models have been used to illustrate a tariff's asymmetric effects on consumers located at different points in the protected economy, and to demonstrate that the optimum tariff for a small open spatial economy may be positive. In these models, the distribution of households has been taken as uniform and fixed. We extend the spatial model by allowing households to optimally locate and consume variable amounts of land, as well as the domestic- or foreign-produced good. Land consumption, location rents, and the distribution of consumers are endogenous, responding to tariff-induced changes in the delivered prices of the domestic and foreign goods. Within this limited general equilibrium framework, a neoclassical result resurfaces: from the perspective of private consumers, the optimum tariff in a small open economy is zero. The possibility of a positive optimum tariff, however, may remain intact in a more integrated model where domestic profits and tariff revenues are redistributed within the spatial economy.     

THE IMPACT OF MIXED LAND USE ON RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY VALUES*

ABSTRACT Contemporary European urban planning policies aim to mix land uses in compact neighborhoods. It is presumed that mixing land uses yields socioeconomic benefits and therefore has a positive effect on housing values. In this paper, we investigate the impact of mixed land use on housing values using semiparametric estimation techniques. We demonstrate that a diverse neighborhood is positively valued by households. There are various land use types that have a positive impact on house prices, e.g., business services and leisure. Land uses that are incompatible with residential land use are, among others, manufacturing and wholesale. It appears that households are willing to pay about 2.5 percent more for a house in a mixed neighborhood. We also show that there is substantial heterogeneity in willingness to pay for mixed land use. For example, only apartment occupiers are willing to pay for an increase in diversity, whereas households living in other house types are not willing to pay for diversity.     

THE OPTIMAL LOCATIONS OF MULTIPLE BRIDGES,CONNECTING FACILITIES,OR PRODUCT VARIETIES*

ABSTRACT This paper considers the optimal locations of two or more facilities, and the optimal number of facilities, when trips are made in pairs. The results are the same as standard models of spatial competition when there is perfect matching, but not when there is random matching. The first interpretation is bridges across a river, with residential locations on one side matched perfectly or randomly to jobs on the other side. The second interpretation is connecting facilities, such as tennis courts or restaurants where pairs of consumers meet. The third interpretation is product differentiation, with husbands and wives jointly choosing from among varieties.