The Diffusion of Housing Price Movements from Center to Surrounding Areas

Previous empirical research shows that there are strong interrelationships between regional housing markets in a number of countries. There are many reasons why housing price changes in central areas may lead housing price movements in surrounding regions. These reasons include structural differences and economic interdependence between regions, as well as informational factors. This paper studies the hypothesis that there is a lead-lag relation between housing price movements in central and surrounding areas. Vector autoregressive and vector error-correction models using quarterly data from the Finnish housing markets from 1987 to 2004 are estimated. The results show that housing price changes diffuse first from the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (HMA), the main economic center in Finland, to the regional centers and then to the peripheral areas. Inside HMA, instead, housing price changes in the suburbs have Granger caused price movements in the city center.