Housing Market as a Reflection of Urban Housing Stratification

Abstract

The article presents the results of a content analysis of the Avito website real estate ads in three Volga Federal District cities – Kazan, Kirov and Nizhny Novgorod. The purpose of the article is to give assessments to housing inequality and housing conditions in these cities through offers in the housing market. The study is based on the analysis of a continuous array of ads over a fixed period of time and a structural content analysis of the items on sale.  The author also carried out a series of expert interviews with the real estate agents. Basic and optional parameters affecting the real estate price and ranking were systematized.  An integral indicator for real estate quality and prestige was designed and calculated; the indicator enabled to rank the real estate objects in terms of class stratification in housing. According to the integral indicator and the degree of homogeneity in the real estate development the author identified four types of neighborhoods in each city and the housing stock features in these cities. Using the data obtained the author designed the city maps reflecting housing and spatial differentiation of the neighborhoods.  The field-proved content analysis technique can be further used to study the housing differentiation in other cities, to forecast the real estate market price depending on real estate characteristics and the prestige of a neighborhood, to estimate the completeness of the citizens’  “housing classes”, and to identify the key trends in regional housing market.

Acknowledgments. The paper is supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), grant no. 18-011-00627 “Specifics of Housing Inequality in Modern Russian Cities”.