Abstract: With the reform of housing system and the development of real estate market, China's housing inequality is becoming more and more prominent. Existing studies have mainly focused on the impact of institutional or market elements on housing inequality prior to or after the urban housing reform. Most of these studies (intentionally or unintentionally) assume that people's behavior in real estateis influenced by their status and earning in the labor market before or after the economic reform. Different from these studies,this paper suggests that the difference of geographical locationsis also a crucial structural factor that cannot be ignored in understanding housing inequality. Based on the analysis of the 2016 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data, we present the following findings: (1) Our variance analysis shows that the differences in the location of housing assets are statistically significant, in which, the market value of average family housing assets in the eastern China urban areasis around 823 700 yuan in contrast to the mere 90 020 yuan in the rural areas of the northeast; (2) Gini coefficient of total household assets and the net household real estate assetsare 0.71 and 0.72 respectively.However, the geographical locations of property assets contribute to more than 46% of the Gini coefficient of residential housing assets, much more prominent than the geospatial difference intotal household assets or per capita income; (3)The Heckman two-step method of analysis shows that geospatial factors have a significant impact on property ownership: people in the developed areas have more difficulties to own property than those in less developed areas. However, for people who are already real estate owners, the effect of geo-spaces on their housing assets shows opposite characteristics: the more in the developed areas, the more advantageous of their family housing assets. These findings support our basic argument that real estate behaviors are influenced to some extend by where the properties are located, and property location is one of the factors contributing to housing inequality. This reflects the difference of urban and rural land system in China, and the uniqueness of the Chinese housing reform and its real estate market. Paying attention to the impact of geographical location on individual behaviors and social inequality in housing can have realistic policy implications and help to broaden the study of social stratification in contemporary China.

Key words: housing inequality in China, geographical location, social stratification, spatial inequality