Discussion Paper
No. 2015-13 | February 25, 2015
Konstantin A. Kholodilin and Dirk Ulbricht
Urban House Prices: A Tale of 48 Cities

Abstract

In this paper, the authors construct a unique data set of Internet offer prices for flats in 48 large European cities from 24 countries. The data are collected between January and May 2012 from 33 websites, where the advertisements of flats for sale are placed. Using the resulting sample of 750,000 announcements the authors compute the average city-specific house prices. Based on this information they investigate the determinants of the apartment prices. Four factors are found to be relevant for the flats’ price level: income per capita, population density, unemployment rate, and income inequality. The results are robust both to excluding variables and to applying two alternative estimation techniques: OLS and quantile regression. Based on their estimation results the authors are able to identify the cities, where the prices are overvalued. This is a useful indication of a build-up of house price bubbles.

Data Set

JEL Classification:

C21, R31

Links

Cite As

[Please cite the corresponding journal article] Konstantin A. Kholodilin and Dirk Ulbricht (2015). Urban House Prices: A Tale of 48 Cities. Economics Discussion Papers, No 2015-13, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. http://www.economics-ejournal.org/economics/discussionpapers/2015-13


Comments and Questions



Anonymous - Referee report 1
March 17, 2015 - 09:00
see attached file

Konstantin A. Kholodilin and Dirk Ulbricht - Reply to referee report 1
March 18, 2015 - 12:10
see attached file

Anna Klabunde, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock - Invited Reader Comment
March 20, 2015 - 09:15
See attached file

Konstantin A. Kholodilin and Dirk Ulbricht - Reply to Invited Reader Comment
March 23, 2015 - 09:53
See attached file

Anonymous - Referee Report 2
March 24, 2015 - 08:49
See attached file

Dirk Ulbricht - Reply to referee report 2
March 25, 2015 - 11:59
see file.

Anonymous - Invited Reader Comment 2
March 31, 2015 - 09:21
See attached file

Dirk Ulbricht - Reply to 2. invited comment
March 31, 2015 - 19:25
see file.

Anonymous - Invited reader's report
April 06, 2015 - 22:23
See the attached file.

Dirk Ulbricht - reply to 3. invited comment
April 08, 2015 - 15:44
see file.

Anonymous - Invited Reader report
April 20, 2015 - 11:47
see attached file

Dirk Ulbricht - reply to invited reader comment
April 27, 2015 - 14:34
see file attached.