Exploring the Impact of Mountain Urban Characteristics on Housing Prices: A Study Utilizing Street View Visual Features

Urban mountains shape the spatial and landscape structure of cities. Rapid urbanization and an increase in real estate developments have led to the erosion of unique urban landscape features. However, mountain cities boast distinctive terrain and landscapes, endowing them with a wealth of scenic resources and aesthetic appeal. Residents' growing concern for their living environment's quality and scenic beauty impacts property values during urban development. Mountain landscapes, vital natural elements of mountain cities, are studied less in their effect on housing prices compared to water features and urban greenery, despite their unique appeal to residents. This study integrates various sources of urban data with subjective analysis of human behavior and the multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) to assess the factors affecting housing prices in mountain cities. It examines the spatial distribution and influence of street view elements on property values and uses gradient-weighted class activation mapping (Grad-CAM) to analyze visual perception characteristics of street views. Research findings reveal urban street view elements, especially mountain views, significantly affect housing prices with pronounced spatial heterogeneity, this spatial unevenness also shifts with urban development, influencing housing prices.