Accessibility of housing: an issue of social well-being. The case of the metropolitan area of Mexico city

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between the price of dwellings and their accessibility to their surroundings. Based on a hedonic price model, we analyze the value that people assign to having access to elements of their environment such as social infrastructure and transport networks. The results indicate that people prefer living in connected places, meaning that they can easily go to places located in a radius greater than 12 000 m, but at the same time, value their privacy, which makes them prefer more isolated housing (in a radius of less than 500 m) of road networks. This result is relevant for urban planning, because it suggests that an urban development policy can generate greater benefits for the population as it focuses on providing greater accessibility to higher levels of integration, and at lower levels it is better that the agents themselves define the configuration of the environment.