Spatial variation of in-migration to Moscow: Testing the effect of housing market

The collapse of state socialism and the introduction of market relationships in Central and Eastern Europe resulted in profound changes of urban development. Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe indicates that the development of a strong housing market and growing material inequalities contribute to the socio-economic polarization of city districts and residential segregation. Based on empirical data, we analyze spatial variation of migrants' first residential choices within Moscow, i.e. intensity of in-migration to a specific district. We test the theory-driven hypotheses about the association between residential choices and housing prices. Our results show that there are some areas that attract migrants of specific socio-economic status. However, housing prices do not explain a substantial share of variance in the intensities of in-migration, at least at the level of city districts; quite a strong association is only evident for foreign migrants. Thus, we find limited evidence of the Moscow' socio-spatial structure polarization due to the residential choices of migrants.