Analyzing Dynamic Connectedness in Korean Housing Markets

This study investigates regional housing market connectedness among the 16 first-tier administrative divisions in Korea and 25 districts in Seoul, the capital city. Time-varying parameter vector autoregressive model is used to capture time-varying nature of Diebold and Yilmaz (2014) connectedness network. Rapid increases in connectedness during the sample period are mostly associated with housing booms rather than downturns. The connectedness cycles for the whole country and for Seoul seem to diverge after the global financial crisis. During the 2006 and 2018 connectedness surge episodes, when housing booms were driven by the Seoul metropolitan area, Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi province had a strong influence on the whole country network. However, their impact was much weaker in 2010-2011 when the housing boom arose outside Seoul. The influence of Gangnam-3 districts in Seoul's connectedness network is low overall, but tends to lead the total connectedness index by a few months.