Spatial heterogeneity in implicit housing prices: evidence from Hangzhou, China

Estimated coefficients in hedonic price models are generally assumed to be constant throughout the entire study area. However, increasing evidence reveals that the marginal prices of housing characteristics may vary over space and that the spatial heterogeneity problem in implicit housing prices should be given attention. Taking Hangzhou, China, as an example, this study uses the micro data of 603 residential communities in 2014 to examine spatial heterogeneity in implicit housing prices. On the basis of the traditional hedonic price model, we establish spatial expansion and geographically weighted regression (GWR) models for comparative analysis. Results show that the spatial expansion and GWR models have excellent goodness of fit and can improve the traditional hedonic price model. The mixed geographically weighted regression (MGWR) model further reveals that the implicit prices of nine housing characteristics vary significantly over space and that the impacts of the four remaining housing characteristics on housing prices are fixed throughout the entire study area. Unlike the traditional hedonic price model and spatial expansion model, the GWR/MGWR model has the unique advantage of visually providing the spatial distribution of implicit housing prices and accurately describing spatial heterogeneity.