Housing price gradients in a geography with one dominating center

Abstract

We primarily focus on explaining housing prices and predicting housing price gradients in a Norwegian region with one dominating center (Stavanger). For such a geography spatial separation can be represented in a hedonic regression equation by a function of traveling distance from the city center. Several functions are tested, and some alternatives provide both a satisfying goodness-to-fit, consistent coefficient estimates, and intuitively reasonable predictions of housing price gradients. Still, not all commonly used functions are recommended. Spatial autocorrelation is removed when the hedonic function is properly specified.hedonic regression model; housing attributes; functional representation of spatial separation; spatial autocorrelation; housing price gradient; capitalization