Similarities in Time-Series of Housing Prices on Local Markets in Poland

This study examined similarities between local real estate markets in Poland from 2006 - 2013 by analyzing changes in housing prices. The analyses covered five cities - all of which are major centers of their regions: Warsaw (Mazovia - the center of Poland), Bialystok (Podlasie - the east of Poland), Cracow (Malopolska - the south of Poland), Poznan (Wielkopolska - the west of Poland) and Gdansk (Pomerania - the north of Poland). The time period was chosen so that it covered an interval of rapid changes in real estate prices (a housing bubble) and their subsequent relaxation to the equilibrium state. Firstly, a multi-dimensional analysis which took into account the Chebyshev distance was employed. This helped to conduct an analysis of the correlation of price changes over time, which revealed their concurrence and, moreover, showed specific propagation delays to external stimuli, and hence could be a measure of the market’s inertia. The degree of integration of the local markets under study changed only slightly over time; therefore, a thesis can be put forth in regard to the interrelation of local real estate markets, imagined as a system of communicating vessels. In the second stage, the damped harmonic oscillator model was employed to describe the observed evolution of real estate prices. This study exhibited high inertia in real estate markets, manifested during rapid structural changes in the system’s state occurring in conditions far from equilibrium. In long-term evolution, the pace of change is slow enough for the systems to remain close to equilibrium