The Effect of Housing Market Segmentation on Commuting

Spatial sorting of housing market in a metropolitan area is relatively well studied, but its implications in transportation are understudied. Housing market segmentation is defined as a degree to which a metropolitan area is divided into spatial housing submarkets. The book looks at how housing market segmentation is related to commute length at a metropolitan scale. The analysis is preceded by delineating housing submarkets by fuzzy clustering methods, and defining the index of housing market segmentation that measures the separation among housing submarkets. Results show that metropolitan areas characterized by incongruous housing market are more likely to be associated with longer vehicle miles of commute while other factors are controlled for. It is speculated that deepening housing market segmentation constrains housing choice, and residents compensate for the constraint by longer commute. The book will be useful for those interested in land use-transportation interaction and the application of fuzzy classification to socioeconomic data.