Urban Area Changes and Housing Price Variations in Chinese rapid urbanization regions

Housing price growth resulting from rapid urbanization in China has become a major concern in sustainable research. Taking southern Jiangsu province as an example, we tried to identify urban areas in 1995, 2010, and 2020 at the block scale. Mean centers of housing prices and urban areas in different periods were used as proxies for evaluating the coordination degree. Moreover, a geographically weighted regression model (GWR) was used to discuss the impacts of location, neighborhood, urban vitality, and landscape on housing prices. Results show that: (1) housing prices in a city generally decrease from urban centers to rural areas, indicating that urbanization affects housing prices; (2) mean centers of housing prices and urban areas show a similar trajectory in the entire region, demonstrating a high quality of urban development; (3) location, landscape, and urban vitality typically positively impact home price growth, while neighborhoods negatively impact it; these relationships vary across different cities. The results provide basic knowledge for urban management.