| This dissertation investigates the factors that account for the spatial variations in housing prices and house price changes in Minneapolis and suburbs between 1970 and 1980 based on the data from the 1970 and 1980 Census of Population and Housing. First, it is hypothesized that the urban housing market should be compartmentalized into several sectoral submarkets, each with internal demand and supply influences likely to result in a different structure of price. The sectoral submarkets are delimited based on the spread of metro development radiating from the city center in all directions coincident with the residential differentiation and diffusion of different socioeconomic groups in different directions of the metro area. Second, it is hypothesized that the spatial variations in housing prices and house price changes can be accounted for by the spatial variations in housing attributes and their changes. The housing attributes, which represent a bundle of housing services that a house can deliver, are specified into the structural characteristics of the house, the housing improvements, the social and physical environment of the neighborhood, and the location of the neighborhood. Third, it is hypothesized that the sources of price variations are subject to continuous change. That is to say the aspects and magnitudes of housing services that influence housing prices have been changed over time. Sectoral difference and temporal difference in price structures and sectoral difference in structures of price change are interpreted based on the changes in wider social, economic and political changes during the 1970s as well as developmental characteristics in each sectoral submarket. |
