IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i21p12277-d673776.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis Affect Housing Prices Evenly in the U.S.?

Author

Listed:
  • Xinba Li

    (Department of Economics & Department of Mathematics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-4148, USA)

  • Chuanrong Zhang

    (Department of Geography & Center of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-4148, USA)

Abstract

While it is well-known that housing prices generally increased in the United States (U.S.) during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, to the best of our knowledge, there has been no research conducted to understand the spatial patterns and heterogeneity of housing price changes in the U.S. real estate market during the crisis. There has been less attention on the consequences of this pandemic, in terms of the spatial distribution of housing price changes in the U.S. The objective of this study was to explore the spatial patterns and heterogeneous distribution of housing price change rates across different areas of the U.S. real estate market during the COVID-19 pandemic. We calculated the global Moran’s I , Anselin’s local Moran’s I , and Getis-Ord’s G i ∗ statistics of the housing price change rates in 2856 U.S. counties. The following two major findings were obtained: (1) The influence of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis on housing price change varied across space in the U.S. The patterns not only differed from metropolitan areas to rural areas, but also varied from one metropolitan area to another. (2) It seems that COVID-19 made Americans more cautious about buying property in densely populated urban downtowns that had higher levels of virus infection; therefore, it was found that during the COVID-19 pandemic year of 2020–2021, the housing price hot spots were typically located in more affordable suburbs, smaller cities, and areas away from high-cost, high-density urban downtowns. This study may be helpful for understanding the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and the real estate market, as well as human behaviors in response to the pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Xinba Li & Chuanrong Zhang, 2021. "Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis Affect Housing Prices Evenly in the U.S.?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-28, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:21:p:12277-:d:673776
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/12277/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/12277/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ka Shing Cheung & Chung Yim Yiu & Chuyi Xiong, 2021. "Housing Market in the Time of Pandemic: A Price Gradient Analysis from the COVID-19 Epicentre in China," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-17, March.
    2. Francke, Marc & Korevaar, Matthijs, 2021. "Housing markets in a pandemic: Evidence from historical outbreaks," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    3. Qian, Xianhang & Qiu, Shanyun & Zhang, Guangli, 2021. "The impact of COVID-19 on housing price: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    4. W. Kip Viscusi, 2020. "Pricing the global health risks of the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 101-128, October.
    5. Abel Brodeur & David Gray & Anik Islam & Suraiya Bhuiyan, 2021. "A literature review of the economics of COVID‐19," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 1007-1044, September.
    6. Liu, Sitian & Su, Yichen, 2021. "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the demand for density: Evidence from the U.S. housing market," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    7. Panayiotis Tzeremes, 2022. "The Asymmetric Effects of Regional House Prices in the UK: New Evidence from Panel Quantile Regression Framework," Studies in Microeconomics, , vol. 10(1), pages 7-22, June.
    8. Cathal O'Donoghue & Denisa M. Sologon & Iryna Kyzyma & John McHale, 2020. "Modelling the Distributional Impact of the COVID‐19 Crisis," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(2), pages 321-336, June.
    9. Tyler Atkinson & Jim Dolmas & Christoffer Koch & Evan F. Koenig & Karel Mertens & Anthony Murphy & Kei-Mu Yi, 2020. "Mobility and Engagement Following the SARS-Cov-2 Outbreak," Working Papers 2014, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    10. Mr. Yunhui Zhao, 2020. "US Housing Market during COVID-19: Aggregate and Distributional Evidence," IMF Working Papers 2020/212, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Chong, Terence Tai Leung & Liu, Hengliang, 2020. "How does the COVID-19 pandemic affect housing prices in China?," MPRA Paper 102103, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Bingbing Wang, 2021. "How Does COVID-19 Affect House Prices? A Cross-City Analysis," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-15, January.
    13. Hu, Maggie R. & Lee, Adrian D. & Zou, Dihan, 2021. "COVID-19 and Housing Prices: Australian Evidence with Daily Hedonic Returns," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    14. Vincenzo Del Giudice & Pierfrancesco De Paola & Francesco Paolo Del Giudice, 2020. "COVID-19 Infects Real Estate Markets: Short and Mid-Run Effects on Housing Prices in Campania Region (Italy)," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-18, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xinba Li & Chihwa Kao, 2022. "Spatial Analysis and Modeling of the Housing Value Changes in the U.S. during the COVID-19 Pandemic," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-25, March.
    2. Ka Shing Cheung & Chung Yim Yiu & Chuyi Xiong, 2021. "Housing Market in the Time of Pandemic: A Price Gradient Analysis from the COVID-19 Epicentre in China," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-17, March.
    3. Arturas Kaklauskas & Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas & Natalija Lepkova & Saulius Raslanas & Kestutis Dauksys & Ingrida Vetloviene & Ieva Ubarte, 2021. "Sustainable Construction Investment, Real Estate Development, and COVID-19: A Review of Literature in the Field," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-42, July.
    4. Safiye Özge Subaşı & Tüzin Baycan, 2022. "Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on private rental housing prices in Turkey," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 1177-1193, October.
    5. Mateusz Tomal & Marco Helbich, 2022. "The private rental housing market before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A submarket analysis in Cracow, Poland," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 49(6), pages 1646-1662, July.
    6. Shian Zeng & Chengdong Yi, 2022. "Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the housing market at the epicenter of the outbreak in China," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(6), pages 1-20, June.
    7. Nadia Balemi & Roland Füss & Alois Weigand, 2021. "COVID-19’s impact on real estate markets: review and outlook," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 35(4), pages 495-513, December.
    8. Wang, Bingbing, 2022. "Housing market volatility under COVID-19: Diverging response of demand in luxury and low-end housing markets," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    9. Walter D'Lima & Luis Arturo Lopez & Archana Pradhan, 2022. "COVID‐19 and housing market effects: Evidence from U.S. shutdown orders," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 50(2), pages 303-339, June.
    10. Raul-Tomas Mora-Garcia & Maria-Francisca Cespedes-Lopez & V. Raul Perez-Sanchez, 2022. "Housing Price Prediction Using Machine Learning Algorithms in COVID-19 Times," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-32, November.
    11. Elisa Guglielminetti & Michele Loberto & Giordano Zevi & Roberta Zizza, 2021. "Living on my own: the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on housing preferences," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 627, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    12. Esma Aksoy Khurami & Ö. Burcu Özdemir Sarı, 2022. "Trends in housing markets during the economic crisis and Covid-19 pandemic: Turkish case," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 1159-1175, October.
    13. Yanke Dai & Yangfei Xu, 2022. "Cheating under Regulation: Evidence from “Yin-and-Yang” Contracts on Beijing’s Housing Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-29, October.
    14. Tsai, I-Chun & Chiang, Ying-Hui & Lin, Shih-Yuan, 2022. "Effect of COVID-19 lockdowns on city-center and suburban housing markets: Evidence from Hangzhou, China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    15. Jeffrey P. Cohen & Felix L. Friedt & Jackson P. Lautier, 2022. "The impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on New York City real estate: First evidence," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 858-888, June.
    16. Hakan Yilmazkuday, 2023. "COVID-19 and housing prices: evidence from U.S. county-level data," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 43(2), pages 241-263, August.
    17. Katafuchi, Yuya, 2021. "Residential land price fluctuations caused by behavioral changes on work-from-home based on COVID-19," MPRA Paper 109310, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Huang, Naqun & Pang, Jindong & Yang, Yanmin, 2023. "JUE Insight: COVID-19 and household preference for urban density in China," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    19. Bergeaud, Antonin & Eyméoud, Jean-Benoît & Garcia, Thomas & Henricot, Dorian, 2023. "Working from home and corporate real estate," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    20. Koetter, Michael & Noth, Felix, 2022. "European real estate markets during the pandemic: Is COVID-19 also a case for house price concerns?," IWH Policy Notes 3/2022, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:21:p:12277-:d:673776. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.