Housing Search Research Articles

Digitalisation, neighbourhood change and urban social processes: Conceptual framework and introduction to the Special Issue

Neighbourhoods are salient for many dimensions of individuals’ social and economic well-being, yet the impacts of rapidly emerging digital information and communication technologies (DICTs) on neighbourhoods and the social processes within them are understudied. This gap motivates this Special Issue, the themes of which we introduce here. We provide an overarching conceptual framework within which the topics, conceptualisations and empirical results of the 11 constituent research papers can be placed. Our framework posits multiple, mutually causal interrelationships between each element in the triad of neighbourhoods, individual residents’ characteristics and individual residents’ actions. In each element we focus on the role(s) of DICTs and their interplay with social processes. These technologies alter traditional housing search patterns, sometimes reinforcing existing segregation, but they also present opportunities for greater access to information and potential social integration. The issue’s 11 research papers, contributed by scholars from various global contexts, explore diverse aspects of these themes. They examine how DICTs mediate neighbourhood change by influencing local housing choices, amplifying or mitigating neighbourhood stigma and transforming social cohesion. By offering a rich empirical and conceptual exploration, this special issue aims to deepen our understanding of the transformative role that DICTs play in neighbourhoods, urging further research into their implications for neighbourhood change and urban social processes.

A sintaxe espacial como ferramenta de análise de ocupação urbana

The lack of planning and effective housing policies has encouraged the search for housing in informal settlements, generally located on the outskirts of cities and segregated by urban sprawl. Space syntax is an important tool for analyzing urban configuration, allowing us to understand the geographical space as a whole, with its limitations and potential, capable of understanding the levels of integration and segregation, improving its flow and connectivity possible. This article analyzes connectivity and integration, using the spatial syntax of vulnerable occupation areas in the city of Erechim/RS (southern Brazil). This study was divided into five stages: a) bibliographical research; b) identification of the areas of occupation in Erechim; c) preparation of an axial map of the city; d) axial analysis using the Detphtamp 0.50 software and, finally; e) cross-referencing the information using the Qgis software. We identified the presence of occupations in green areas, mostly on the outskirts of the city, segregated to the other regions of the city, with a general average integration of 1.514 pixels, where the areas with the best economic value (between 1,720.01 and 5,231.01 reais) have the best connectivity.

Finding a Home during the Affordable Housing Crisis: How Social Ties Shape Renters’ Housing-Search Outcomes

Housing searches play a central role in the reproduction of racial inequality in U.S. cities. Past research finds that movers’ social ties influence residential segregation, as renters receive information about homes located near friends and family. Fewer studies examine how renters’ social ties also provide instrumental assistance during moves, or how this aid unequally shapes moving outcomes. In the present study, I show how 69 low-income, Latina/o and non-Hispanic white renters rely on their friends, family, and acquaintances to navigate moves in Los Angeles, a highly unaffordable rental market. Both groups mobilize their ties for instrumental assistance, but the resources available through renters’ ties contribute to diverging search outcomes. Low-income Latina/o renters’ ties, who also struggled to make ends meet, provided what I call constrained support—referrals to open units, loans to cover moving costs, and informal rental opportunities. This assistance channeled movers to specific apartments and left them negotiating informal, doubled-up homes and new debt. In contrast, low-income white renters leveraged comparatively affluent ties to cosign leases, provide financial gifts, and strengthen applications across buildings—what I refer to as flexible assistance. This aid helped low-income white movers secure housing advantages, while avoiding short-term reciprocal obligations to friends and family. These findings advance research on residential mobility and social support, and they show how network resource inequalities contribute to racial stratification in rental markets.

Locked In: Rate Hikes, Housing Markets, and Mobility

Rising interest rates in 2022 introduced large moving costs for homeowners with low, fixed-rate mortgages. Using a novel dataset linking mortgage loans, consumer credit profiles, and property sales, we examine the effects of rate hikes on household mobility and the broader economic impacts of the resulting mortgage rate lock-in. As market rates rise relative to those on borrowers’ existing loans, likelihood of moving falls with the highest elasticity among borrowers just “in the money.” Our results suggest about 44% of the decline in moves among mortgage holders between 2021 and 2022 may be attributable to the widening gap between borrower’s existing and market rates. We find limited scope for labor misallocation due to lock-in, as moves across labor market areas are rather unaffected. Instead, lock-in primarily reduces within-metro churn and moves up the housing ladder, leading to fewer real estate listings and greater house price growth. We explain lock-in-driven price increases through a housing search model: in a seller’s market, reduced churn raises market tightness, driving up prices. Consistentwith such a model, we show measures of market tightness increase in response to lock-in, with the most significant effects in markets that were already tight.

Анализ рынка жилой недвижимости академического района города Екатеринбург

Real estate as an economic category is a tangible asset, the value equivalent of which is determined by how effectively it is used as an economic good, commodity or source of income. The real estate market is of constant relevance, both for investors, builders, lawyers, and for ordinary citizens who need their own housing to live. The analysis of the real estate market helps to understand where the real estate market may move in the future and what awaits it, taking into account the specifics according to which it is formed. This article analyzes the secondary real estate of the Academic district of Yekaterinburg. Information on real estate objects was selected from the sites of Avito and Domclick, services for housing search and real estate sale. The existing infrastructure of the district is analyzed. To analyze the dynamics of the price per square meter of residential real estate, calculations were made for a time period of 4 months in 2023-2024 and data on the cost of a square meter were presented.

On and beyond gentrifiers: middling transnationals, rental agents, and the housing search

Drawing inspiration from autoethnographic accounts of gentrification, this paper examines the privileges and disadvantages of middling transnationals in the private rented sector to reveal the complexity of housing decisions, thereby challenging the inclination to conceive this particular group as ‘gentrifiers’. By demonstrating the ability of middle-class migrants to prioritize their preferences while considering the challenges they face due to their newcomer status, this paper contends that housing decisions are the outcome of the interplay between migrants, rental agents, and digital platforms. In so doing, this paper highlights the gatekeeping capability of traditional and digital intermediaries in the rental market. Methodologically, this paper underscores the value of the microscopic view enabled by autoethnography, which broadens gentrification research by facilitating the recognition of emerging trends and the identification of promising areas for future research. Overall, through its reflection on the potential influences of transnational migrants on gentrification, this paper contributes to research efforts that intend to understand gentrification in relation to migration.

Room Quest

Abstract—Relocating to a new city can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to finding suitable accommodation. RoomQuest is a web-based platform designed to assist employees and students in this transition by providing a user-friendly interface for finding housing that meets their needs. The platform allows homeowners to register their properties and specify facilities, rules, and regulations, making it easier for users to find accommodation that aligns with their preferences. One of the key features of RoomQuest is its ability to streamline the process of searching for housing, thereby reducing the stress and uncertainty associated with relocating to unfamiliar environments. By providing a centralized platform for property listings, RoomQuest aims to simplify the housing search process and improve the overall experience for users. RoomQuest also offers a range of tools and resources to help users make informed decisions about their accommodation. This includes detailed property listings, photos, and virtual tours, as well as information about local amenities and neighborhood characteristics. Additionally, the platform allows users to communicate directly with homeowners, facilitating the booking process and ensuring a smooth transition to their new location.

Housing search activity and quantiles-based predictability of housing price movements in the USA

Purpose Recent evidence from a linear econometric framework infers that housing search activity, captured from Google Trends data, can predict housing returns for the USA at a national and regional (metropolitan statistical area [MSA]) level. Based on search theory, the authors, however, postulate that search activity can also predict housing returns volatility. This study aims to explore the possibility of using online search activity to predict both housing returns and volatility. Design/methodology/approach Using a k-th order non-parametric causality-in-quantiles test allows us to test for predictability in a robust manner over the entire conditional distribution of both housing price returns and its volatility (i.e. squared returns) by controlling for nonlinearity and structural breaks that exist in the data. Findings The analysis over the monthly period of 2004:01 to 2021:01 produces results indicating that while housing search activity continues to predict aggregate US house price returns, barring the extreme ends of the conditional distribution, volatility is relatively strongly predicted over the entire quantile range considered. The results carry over to an alternative (the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity-based) metric of volatility, higher (weekly)-frequency data (over January 2018–March 2021) and to over 84% of the 77 MSAs considered. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study regarding predictability of overall and regional US housing price returns and volatility using search activity, based on a non-parametric higher-order causality-in-quantiles framework, which is insightful to investors, policymakers and academics.

Database Management for the Arrangement and Management of Online Boarding Houses in the Archipelago Region

Teluk Mutiara District is one of the sub-districts in the Alor Island group, currently a sub-district that has the potential for quite rapid regional development. With the increasing prospects for development and activities in this region, more and more people are coming to work, try their luck, attend education and live in this region. The geographical location of Alor Regency with the Islands region makes people choose the alternative boarding house as a temporary residence. People experience problems when looking for a boarding house because they have to go around and ask acquaintances and friends about the availability of empty boarding rooms. Boarding house owners are also limited in promoting boarding houses, they only write information about the boarding house business in front of the house. This limited information means a system has been created that can register, search for and promote boarding house businesses according to needs quickly and precisely. The iterative method is used in developing systems because this method can accept changes in requirements from users if necessary. The system was successfully built with a boarding house and promotion data collection feature as well as a boarding house search feature based on location, facilities and closest distance

Reclaiming public spaces: experiences of social exclusion of female sanitary workers in public spaces in Lahore, Pakistan

ABSTRACT This research explores the challenges faced by female Christian sanitary workers in the public spaces of Lahore, Pakistan, utilising Nancy Fraser’s analytical framework of redistribution, recognition, and representation to uncover multifaceted factors contributing to their societal marginalisation. Through in-depth interviews with 19 participants, the study sheds light on significant economic, sociocultural, and political barriers, including exploitative working conditions religious discrimination, and societal attitudes deeming sanitation labour as inferior. The findings reveal that workers endure exploitative work devoid of protections, heightened by enduring religious discrimination and caste hierarchies fostering disrespect towards sanitation labour as polluting and lowly. This situation induces anxiety amongst sanitation workers when accessing shared amenities, visceral harassment during housing searches, everyday humiliation while using public transport, and internalisation of shame even when accessing health-care facilities. The absence of workplace contracts, bargaining powers, or avenues to advocate for needs-based policy changes leaves workers politically marginalised, intensifying the precarity faced by multiple generations undertaking hazardous manual roles in urban waste management. Consequently, this engenders socio-spatial exclusion of female sanitation workers across economic, sociocultural, and political dimensions. This exclusion challenges prevailing state narratives celebrating cleanliness initiatives while perpetuating hardships for those contributing to waste management. The research emphasises the urgent need for targeted policy interventions, calling for a reassessment of administrative and planning approaches governing public spaces to foster inclusivity, challenge societal hierarchies, and ensure adequate representation for marginalised women amidst Lahore’s ongoing urbanisation.

Creating Moves to Opportunity: Experimental Evidence on Barriers to Neighborhood Choice

Low-income families often live in low-upward-mobility neighborhoods. We study why by using a randomized trial with housing voucher recipients that provided information, financial support, and customized search assistance to move to high-opportunity neighborhoods. The treatment increased the fraction moving to high-upward-mobility areas from 15 to 53 percent. A second trial reveals this treatment effect is driven primarily by customized search assistance. Qualitative interviews show that the intervention relaxed bandwidth constraints and addressed family-specific needs. Our findings imply many low-income families do not have strong preferences to stay in low-opportunity areas and that barriers in housing search significantly increase residential segregation by income. (JEL D83, G51, R21, R23, R31, R38)

Subjectification as an ideal tenant. Competing for housing in the Viennese private rental market

Despite its reputation as a ‘paradise for renters,’ housing seekers in Vienna also face increasing difficulties in finding affordable housing, especially in the private rental housing market. We examine how competitive housing search, application, and allocation shape the subjectivities of housing seekers. Drawing on interviews with landlords, real estate agents and housing seekers in the Viennese private rental market, we analyse the suggestions of subjectivity housing seekers face and how they appropriate—enact, negotiate, or contest—these subjectivities. The study shows that housing seekers must sense and enact an ideal tenant to increase their chances of successfully accessing housing. The various modes of subjectification clustered around this image of the ideal tenant—being solvent, caring for the apartment, not being a foreigner, and invoking a good ‘gut feeling’—show that increased competition not only makes access to affordable housing more difficult, but also has normative effects.

Neighbourhoods still Matter Because Housing Market Actors Believe They Matter

The urban neighbourhood – though increasingly assailed as a problematic spatial construct – still matters in contemporary societies because it is a crucial unit of reference in metropolitan housing markets. The logic is as follows. Key housing market actors – households, owners, developers, and agents – believe that the local area in which they live, own property, or try to sell property influences their own wellbeing for a number of social-psychological and/or economic reasons. Because these people then act on their neighbourhood-related beliefs in a variety of ways, this implies that neighbourhoods are important: they generate collective behavioural responses. Put more succinctly, neighbourhoods must still matter because housing market actors believe they matter and then behave based on these beliefs. Evidence to support this logic is assembled here from a wide variety of interdisciplinary sources. For households, we observe the strong relationship between neighbourhood conditions and satisfaction, housing search, and intra-urban mobility. For property owners and developers, we observe how neighbourhood attributes strongly influence property values and, relatedly, the virulence of NIMBY protests when changes in these a ributes are considered threatening. For housing agents, we see continued evidence of discriminatory exclusion and geographic steering on the basis of neighbourhood racial/ethnic and income composition.

Web-Based Information System for Boarding House Information

Web-Based Information System for Boarding House Information is a platform designed to facilitate efficient search and management of boarding houses. This research produces a system that allows boarding house owners to present complete information regarding facilities, prices and availability of boarding rooms through a user-friendly web interface. Prospective renters can quickly find boarding houses that suit their preferences, reducing time and effort in the housing search process. This system not only provides static information about boarding houses, but also provides real-time updates regarding room availability. With the implementation of this Web-Based Information System, it is hoped that it can increase the efficiency of boarding house management, increase the accessibility of information, and provide a better experience for boarding house seekers. This system is a leading solution in supporting the development of the housing industry, providing an easy-to-use platform to meet the needs of tenants and boarding house owners in this computerized period

PERANCANGAN SISTEM INFORMASI PENJUALAN RUMAH BERBASIS WEB PADA PT.AGUNG SELARAS GROUP PEKANBARU

In the current digital era, a housing sales information system is a crucial component in the operations of property companies. The use of web-based information technology has become a necessity to enhance efficiency and expand market reach. Therefore, this research aims to design and develop a web-based housing sales information system for PT. Agung Selaras Group Pekanbaru. The research methodology includes analysis, system design, implementation, and testing phases. The result of this research is a web-based housing sales information system that can assist PT. Agung Selaras Group Pekanbaru in efficiently managing the housing sales process. This system is equipped with features such as detailed housing information, housing search based on specific criteria, booking processes, and online payments. Additionally, the system allows users to view housing photo galleries, obtain contact information, and provide reviews for the purchased houses.

Search, evidentiary procedure for discovering and removing documents and material means of evidence

The paper deals with the importance of the legislative framework governing domicile search and the procedure by which it can be ordered. Domicile search is decisive in solving the criminal case by obtaining evidence necessary to establish the facts or circumstances in which the crime was committed and to identify the perpetrator. A house search is a criminal procedure in which judicial authorities carry out certain searches of residential premises in order to obtain physical evidence of certain crimes. The searches require "legality" and participation in appropriate procedural safeguards against arbitrariness and abuse in order to respect the human rights enshrined in the Romanian Constitution and also in the European Convention on Human Rights, especially with respect for private and family life. I am trying to analyse to what extent the new legal provisions fall within the guarantees imposed by human rights law. To do this, I look at the search warrant procedure and the legal conditions that judicial authorities must follow during the home search procedure.
 Domiciliary search is regulated in Articles 157-164 of the NCPP, and in Art. 27 of the Romanian Constitution and art. Article 8 of the ECHR expressly provides that the conduct of this procedure presupposes respect for the inviolability of the person's domicile and private life.

“We'll make it work”: Navigating surveilled living arrangements after romantic partner incarceration

AbstractObjectiveWe use the case of housing insecurity to examine how romantic partner incarceration results in increased and prolonged surveillance of women at home.BackgroundRomantic partner incarceration prompts surveillance from the criminal legal system while simultaneously eroding women's finances, health, and family relationships. Less is known about how these symbiotic harms of romantic partner incarceration enable surveillance beyond the criminal legal system.MethodWe use longitudinal interviews with 35 (previously coresident) romantic partners of incarcerated men, showing how incarceration prompts unwanted moves for partners, how women manage housing insecurity following partner incarceration, and how they become embedded into living arrangements where they are monitored, evaluated, and controlled.ResultsWe identify three primary findings. First, women experiencing housing insecurity after romantic partner incarceration relied heavily on their social ties (and, to a lesser extent, institutional housing providers) while enduring stressful and prolonged housing searches. Second, the homes that women move into expose them to increased surveillance. Women encounter domestic, caregiving, romantic, and financial surveillance. Romantic partner incarceration prompts large changes in surveillance among women who left independent homes, moderate changes in surveillance among women who left comparatively desirable doubled‐up homes, and prolonged surveillance among nonmovers. Finally, women respond to surveillance by monitoring burdens on hosts and reframing stays in shared homes as temporary.ConclusionTaken together, these findings extend prior research on the symbiotic harms of romantic partner incarceration, how women attached to incarcerated men experience surveillance, and how doubled‐up families sustain shared homes.

Sequential Search with Acquisition Uncertainty

We study a variation of the classical Pandora’s problem in which a decision maker (DM) sequentially explores alternatives from a given set and learns their values while trying to acquire the best alternative. The variations in the model we study are (i) alternatives randomly become unavailable during exploration and (ii) the DM’s ability to acquire a remaining alternative is uncertain and depends on a chosen offer price. Such acquisition uncertainties arise in many applications, including housing search, hiring problems, and e-commerce, but greatly complicate the search problem in that optimal policies retain all previously explored alternative values as part of the problem state, as opposed to only the highest explored value as in Pandora’s rule. Our central insight is that despite the complexity that these acquisition uncertainties create, simple greedy policies based on static sequencing and a single threshold value enjoy strong performance guarantees. We develop such a class of policies and show how to compute them using a greedy algorithm whose worst-case run-time scales linearly (up to logarithmic factors) in the number of alternative types. We show that our policies (a) are asymptotically optimal in high multiplicity regimes with many alternatives and (b) obtain at least [Formula: see text] of the optimal value under a broad set of conditions. Extensive numerical examples support this theory: We illustrate our policies on a variation of Pandora’s problem with disappearing alternatives and housing search on models calibrated on data from the online brokerage Redfin. In these examples, our policies significantly outperform policies based on Pandora’s rule. This paper was accepted by Omar Besbes, revenue management and market analytics. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.00203 .

Study on Support Measures for Elderly one-person household Using PropTech

In South Korea, the rapid increase in aging and single-person elderly households is presenting challenges. These challenges are categorized into poverty and economic vulnerability, social isolation, health issues, and housing problems. Solutions utilizing proptech have been proposed to address each of these issues effectively. Proptech offers comprehensive solutions for the elderly, addressing economic and housing stability, social isolation, and health concerns. It provides financial management tools, online real estate consulting, VR technology for virtual tours, and training in various skills to enhance seniors' economic stability and social engagement. For housing, it includes affordable housing search tools, cost calculators, and online payment systems, alongside energy-efficient improvements and smart home technologies for physical safety and comfort. To combat social isolation, proptech utilizes smart devices and online platforms for community engagement. For health, it offers telemedicine, wearable health monitors, and AI-powered analytics to improve healthcare access and preventive care for seniors.

Identifying exurbs: A multi-criteria approach for Germany

The debate about exurbanites and exurbs has ever been an Anglo-American phenomenon. Due to the limitless space for growth and the individual preferences of living in single-family homes, the exurban census tracts were the fastest growing urban type in the USA for several decades. The increase in highway infrastructure lead to an auto-centric development of land and an ongoing urban sprawl in search for natural amenities and affordable housing. This was not the case in Europe for a long time as Europeans preferred to live closer to the place of work and the historically grown structures of the urban development. However, after the COVID-19 pandemic and the restructuring of a new office culture with remote work as the new condition and growing preferences for more living space and green amenities, exurbs could also evolve in the European context. In this investigation, the authors try to identify exurbs in the German context based on a multi-criteria analysis. We find that they are mostly located in the east and north of Germany around Hamburg and Berlin, and to a minor extent to the west and south of Germany. While there has not been a significant increase of exurbs in the past years, the question remains whether the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the exurbanisation and the related issues to a sustainable urban development according to SDG 11. Further research on the characteristics of exurbs is needed to provide additional policy recommendations and monitor the development of potential exurbs in the future.