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Rental Housing Spot Markets: How Online Information Exchanges Can Supplement Transacted-Rents Data

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Listed:
  • Geoff Boeing
  • Jake Wegmann
  • Junfeng Jiao

Abstract

Traditional US rental housing data sources such as the American Community Survey and the American Housing Survey report on the transacted market - what existing renters pay each month. They do not explicitly tell us about the spot market - i.e., the asking rents that current homeseekers must pay to acquire housing - though they are routinely used as a proxy. This study compares governmental data to millions of contemporaneous rental listings and finds that asking rents diverge substantially from these most recent estimates. Conventional housing data understate current market conditions and affordability challenges, especially in cities with tight and expensive rental markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Geoff Boeing & Jake Wegmann & Junfeng Jiao, 2020. "Rental Housing Spot Markets: How Online Information Exchanges Can Supplement Transacted-Rents Data," Papers 2002.01578, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2002.01578
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Geoff Boeing, 2020. "Online rental housing market representation and the digital reproduction of urban inequality," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(2), pages 449-468, March.
    2. Edward L. Glaeser & Joseph Gyourko & Raven E. Saks, 2006. "Urban growth and housing supply," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(1), pages 71-89, January.
    3. Geoff Boeing & Max Besbris & Ariela Schachter & John Kuk, 2021. "Housing Search in the Age of Big Data: Smarter Cities or the Same Old Blind Spots?," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 112-126, January.
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    7. Gabriel Metcalf, 2018. "Sand Castles before the Tide? Affordable Housing in Expensive Cities," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(1), pages 59-80, Winter.
    8. Heather L. Schwartz & Kata Mihaly & Breann Gala, 2017. "Encouraging Residential Moves to Opportunity Neighborhoods: An Experiment Testing Incentives Offered to Housing Voucher Recipients," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(2), pages 230-260, March.
    9. Galster, George C., 2019. "Making Our Neighborhoods, Making Our Selves," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226599854, September.
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    11. Edlund, Lena & Machado, Cecilia & Sviatschi, Maria, 2015. "Bright Minds, Big Rent: Gentrification and the Rising Returns to Skill," IZA Discussion Papers 9502, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Libby Porter & Desiree Fields & Ani Landau-Ward & Dallas Rogers & Jathan Sadowski & Sophia Maalsen & Rob Kitchin & Oliver Dawkins & Gareth Young & Lisa K Bates, 2019. "Planning, Land and Housing in the Digital Data Revolution/The Politics of Digital Transformations of Housing/Digital Innovations, PropTech and Housing – the View from Melbourne/Digital Housing and Ren," Planning Theory & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 575-603, August.
    13. Boeing, Geoff, 2017. "New Insights into Rental Housing Markets across the United States: Web Scraping and Analyzing Craigslist Rental Listings," SocArXiv v54w4, Center for Open Science.
    14. Halket, Jonathan & Pignatti Morano di Custoza, Matteo, 2015. "Homeownership and the scarcity of rentals," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 107-123.
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    Cited by:

    1. Geoff Boeing & Max Besbris & Ariela Schachter & John Kuk, 2021. "Housing Search in the Age of Big Data: Smarter Cities or the Same Old Blind Spots?," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 112-126, January.
    2. Boeing, Geoff & Harten, Julia & Sanchez-Moyano, Rocio, 2023. "Digitalization of the Housing Search: Homeseekers, Gatekeepers, and Market Legibility," SocArXiv 643x2, Center for Open Science.
    3. Geoff Boeing, 2020. "Online rental housing market representation and the digital reproduction of urban inequality," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(2), pages 449-468, March.
    4. Chris Hess & Arthur Acolin & Rebecca Walter & Ian Kennedy & Sarah Chasins & Kyle Crowder, 2021. "Searching for housing in the digital age: Neighborhood representation on internet rental housing platforms across space, platform, and metropolitan segregation," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(8), pages 2012-2032, November.
    5. Pereira, Mauro F. & Vale, David S. & Santana, Paula, 2023. "Is walkability equitably distributed across socio-economic groups? – A spatial analysis for Lisbon metropolitan area," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).

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