Alternative Models for Describing Spatial Dependence among Dwelling Selling Prices.

This article presents alternative models for describing spatial dependence among dwelling selling prices. Often housing selling market prices are spatially autocorrelated meaning that dwellings located in a nearby area have similar prices. Moreover, the autocorrelation decays with distance. There are several reasons why dwelling selling prices depend strongly upon location. First, households in a neighborhood area have similar structural characteristics, such as building materials, total living area, age of construction, garages and storage rooms. Second, they share common social services, such as schools, health centers, libraries or malls. Finally, they share the same distances to administrative and commercial nerve-centers.