Synergistic Network Connectivity among Urban Areas Based on Non-Linear Model of Housing Prices Dynamics

Abstract

Abstract The assumption of a strong positive relationship between the specificity of an urban area and the operation of the housing market, which responds to megatrends in the market environment, has been the foundation of the research concept adopted for this study. The study treats the housing markets as complex, adaptive dynamic systems which develop through synergistic network responses. This paper employs a nonlinear critically-damped harmonic oscillator model and phase diagrams to describe the dynamics of housing prices (in the years 2006-2016) in order to demonstrate the synergistic network connections in selected Polish cities. In another important part of the study, the authors propose to employ non-classical dynamic measures, i.e. the absolute time of delay, relaxation time and a long-term level of equilibrium. The study has shown that network connections are strongly synchronized during periods of housing market instability (2006-2007), whereas the process of unsynchronization is observed during a period of stability (2008-2016). Moreover, phase diagrams have been used to demonstrate the similarity of trends in housing prices as well as the shapes of individual trajectories and the existence of multiple points of quasi-equilibrium.