Unpacking the relation between media sentiment and house prices: A topic modeling approach

Abstract

This study uses a topic modeling approach to investigate the relation between news media sentiment and house price movements. By examining real estate related articles published in local newspapers of 16 major cities in Canada and Australia, we find that housing media sentiment has significant relation with future house price movements in the Canadian market but not in the Australian market. We identify the specific topics discussed in news media related to the housing market and report differences in their themes and media sentiment's predictive power between Canada and Australia. This analysis presents novel inferences of qualitative and hard-to-quantify information related to the housing market in two different countries.