What Do We Learn from Mobile Phone Location Data about Mobility and Housing During COVID-19

Abstract

This research investigates the impact of mobility on the housing market during the COVID19 pandemic with mobile phone location data from the UK. We analyze million cell phone locations and timestamp records in March 2020 and 2021 attributed to over 126,000 individuals in England and Wales. We find that the pandemic led to a decrease in going to the workplace from 4.0 days per week in March 2020 to 2.80 days in March 2021. The effect is stronger in areas where individuals are more likely to be able to work from home. We find that if people in an area cut going to work by 10%, house prices would fall by 1% in the place of residence and by 1.86% in the place of work. One way to explain this is that the barriers to working from anywhere have decreased allowing households to be more flexible and ease the demand elasticity.

Keywords: Mobility, Housing prices, Workplace visits, Mobile phone location data

JEL Classification: R21, R30, J60, R12