Multivariate Dynamic Analysis and Forecasting Models of Future Property Bubbles: Empirical Applications to the Housing Markets of Spanish Metropolitan Cities

The cogency of evaluation models able to predict future trends and to monitor the consequences of scenarios different from those initially expected has been determining a growing scientific interest for the development of financial sustainability methods. With reference to quarterly time series collected for the metropolitan area of five Spanish cities, in this research an innovative methodology has been implemented, in order to make explicit, for each case study, the main functional relationships between the housing prices and the socio-economic factors. The models obtained are characterized by both high statistical performance and compliance with the expected market phenomena, highlighting the decisive role in the housing price formation of the factors that indirectly represent the population’s income capacity (market rents, unemployment level, mortgages). Then, an empirical procedure for the construction of the future property value trends has been developed. The results point out the forecasting and monitoring potentialities of the methodology used, as a fundamental decision support tool in the urban planning policies of the local administrations, interested in anticipating and checking future housing bubbles through appropriate economic policies, and for private operators, in the phases of selection of the most attractive territorial areas for new property realizations.