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Housing Search in the Age of Big Data: Smarter Cities or the Same Old Blind Spots?

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  • Boeing, Geoff

    (Northeastern University)

  • Besbris, Max
  • Schachter, Ariela
  • Kuk, John

Abstract

Housing scholars stress the importance of the information environment in shaping housing search behavior and outcomes. Rental listings have increasingly moved online over the past two decades and, in turn, online platforms like Craigslist are now central to the search process. Do these technology platforms serve as information equalizers or do they reflect traditional information inequalities that correlate with neighborhood sociodemographics? We synthesize and extend analyses of millions of US Craigslist rental listings and find they supply significantly different volumes, quality, and types of information in different communities. Technology platforms have the potential to broaden, diversify, and equalize housing search information, but they rely on landlord behavior and, in turn, likely will not reach this potential without a significant redesign or policy intervention. Smart cities advocates hoping to build better cities through technology must critically interrogate technology platforms and big data for systematic biases.

Suggested Citation

  • Boeing, Geoff & Besbris, Max & Schachter, Ariela & Kuk, John, 2020. "Housing Search in the Age of Big Data: Smarter Cities or the Same Old Blind Spots?," SocArXiv n5zws, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:n5zws
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/n5zws
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alasdair Rae, 2015. "Online Housing Search and the Geography of Submarkets," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(3), pages 453-472, June.
    2. Boeing, Geoff & Wegmann, Jake & Jiao, Junfeng, 2020. "Rental Housing Spot Markets: How Online Information Exchanges Can Supplement Transacted-Rents Data," SocArXiv phgqt, Center for Open Science.
    3. repec:nas:journl:v:115:y:2018:p:7735-7740 is not listed on IDEAS
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    5. Stefanie DeLuca & James Rosenbaum, 2003. "If low‐income blacks are given a chance to live in white neighborhoods, will they stay? Examining mobility patterns in a quasi‐experimental program with administrative data," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 305-345.
    6. Libby Porter & Desiree Fields & Ani Landau-Ward & Dallas Rogers & Jathan Sadowski & Sophia Maalsen & Rob Kitchin & Oliver Dawkins & Gareth Young & Lisa K Bates, 2019. "Planning, Land and Housing in the Digital Data Revolution/The Politics of Digital Transformations of Housing/Digital Innovations, PropTech and Housing – the View from Melbourne/Digital Housing and Ren," Planning Theory & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 575-603, August.
    7. Jacob William Faber, 2018. "Segregation and the Geography of Creditworthiness: Racial Inequality in a Recovered Mortgage Market," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 215-247, March.
    8. Matthew Marr, 2005. "Mitigating apprehension about section 8 vouchers: The positive role of housing specialists in search and placement," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(1), pages 85-111.
    9. Geoff Boeing, 2020. "Online rental housing market representation and the digital reproduction of urban inequality," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(2), pages 449-468, March.
    10. Heather L. Schwartz & Kata Mihaly & Breann Gala, 2017. "Encouraging Residential Moves to Opportunity Neighborhoods: An Experiment Testing Incentives Offered to Housing Voucher Recipients," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(2), pages 230-260, March.
    11. Rebecca J. Walter & Ruoniu Wang, 2016. "Searching for Affordability and Opportunity: A Framework for the Housing Choice Voucher Program," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4-5), pages 670-691, September.
    12. Boeing, Geoff, 2017. "New Insights into Rental Housing Markets across the United States: Web Scraping and Analyzing Craigslist Rental Listings," SocArXiv v54w4, Center for Open Science.
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    Cited by:

    1. Boeing, Geoff & Harten, Julia & Sanchez-Moyano, Rocio, 2023. "Digitalization of the Housing Search: Homeseekers, Gatekeepers, and Market Legibility," SocArXiv 643x2, Center for Open Science.
    2. Geoff Boeing & Jake Wegmann & Junfeng Jiao, 2020. "Rental Housing Spot Markets: How Online Information Exchanges Can Supplement Transacted-Rents Data," Papers 2002.01578, arXiv.org.
    3. Adu, Providence & Delmelle, Elizabeth C., 2022. "Spatial Variations in Exclusionary Criteria from Online Rental Advertisements," SocArXiv 8g4sv, Center for Open Science.
    4. Sha, Kritika & Taeihagh, Araz & De Jong, Martin, 2024. "Governing disruptive technologies for inclusive development in cities: A systematic literature review," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    5. Fan, Ying & Fu, Yuqi & Yang, Zan & Chen, Ming, 2024. "Search frictions in rental markets: Evidence from urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    6. Fan, Ying & Fu, Yuqi & Yang, Zan & Chen, Ming, 2023. "Search Frictions in Rental Markets: Evidence from Urban China," Working Paper Series 23/11, Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Real Estate and Construction Management & Banking and Finance.

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