Abstract: Improving the income distribution pattern is the fundamental way to promote common prosperity. Previous studies have mainly demonstrated the causal relationship between housing price and income gap of residents based on property income. From the realistic perspective of housing price imbalance, this paper discusses the influence of housing price imbalance on wage income gap by introducing the difference of labor mobility with different skills. It is found that the role of housing price in widening the wage income gap continues to increase with the increase of housing prices, and the imbalance of housing prices can significantly widen the wage income gap. The results of the mechanism test show that the imbalance of housing prices intensifies the mobility difference between different skilled laborers, which leads to the relatively stronger mobility of high-skilled laborers, and the mobility of labor forces has a relatively stronger role in promoting the wage income of high-skilled laborers. Therefore, under the dual effects of housing price difference and labor skill difference, the unreasonable degree of labor factor allocation in China has increased, and the wage income gap of labor forces has been widening. The conclusion of the study is helpful to enrich the exploration of structural problems between housing prices and residents' income gap, deeply trace the unreasonable causes of residents' income gap, and provide new ideas for narrowing the income gap.

Key words: unbalanced housing prices, labor mobility, skills differences, wage income gap