An Approach to Urban Modelling and Evaluation a Residential Model: 1. Theory

Abstract

This is the first of three papers describing a model of housing demand. The present paper sets out the theoretical framework for the model, which is based on a number of recent theories in economics. The main interest in the research lies in the development of urban models for obtaining information directly relevant to the analysis of costs and benefits for alternative urban programs, in this case housing programs. The research for the housing model, therefore, is concerned with housing services, their relative demand prices, and demand equations for these services. The second paper, “A residential model: 2. Implicit prices for housing services”, contains results for demand prices for housing characteristics as services estimated by multiple regression analysis, using data for selling price and housing characteristics from the town of Reading, Berkshire. The research described in the third paper, “A residential model: 3. Demand equations for housing services”, includes results for the wide differences in prices for similar housing between tenure groups, and for demand equations for housing services at three levels of aggregation as a function of household attributes of income, social status, stage in family cycle, and household size.