## 1 Background and Purpose of the Study  
The number of abandoned houses is rapidly growing across South Korea. According to Statistics Korea, the number of abandoned houses nationwide increased from 980,000 in 2018 to approximately 1,518,000 in 2019, which accounted for about 8.4% of the total number of houses [1].  
The increasing number of abandoned houses is directly linked to a wide range of problems in communities, such as apprehension about crimes [2], escalation of fear among local residents, high likelihood of an old abandoned building collapsing, high risk of fire or orarson [3, 4], growing concern about public sanitation due to the accumulation of trash [5], diminishing cityscapes, and people's aesthetic views. Against such a backdrop, the central and local governments are taking a greater interest and expending more effort in actively maintaining abandoned houses and minimizing the social cost resulting from the growing number of abandoned houses.  
The causes of housing abandonment vary, making it hard to pinpoint one particular factor. Therefore, it is necessary to determine regional characteristics. Currently, housing abandonment in Korea is observed almost everywhere, regardless of the population fluctuation [6]; thus, studies are underway to identify the causes of housing abandonment and to establish preventive measures.  
In response to the recent increase in abandoned houses, the central and local governments have strived to establish and improve policies related to housing abandonment. To maintain and manage abandoned houses and properties in rural villages, the government passed the Rearrangement of Agricultural and Fishing Villages Act in 1994 and the Act on Promotion of Improvement of Rural Housing in 1995. As the number of abandoned houses began to increase in urban areas, pre-existing laws were revised into the Building Act in 2016. In 2017, the government passed the Special Act on the Maintenance of Abandoned Houses and Small Houses, which led to each local government's enactment of ordinances related to housing abandonment. The Special Act on the Maintenance of Abandoned Houses and Small Houses represented the first enactment of law as a measure to systematically manage abandoned houses, and was significant in that it intended to not only recognize housing abandonment as an urban problem, but also to efficiently counter this problem. Nonetheless, the law has its limitations in resolving the fundamental problem due to its emphasis on the implementation of small-scale housing maintenance projects through demolition [7].  
This study approached this issue from a systematic and comprehensive perspective, with the intention to empirically analyze the variables that affect housing abandonment by examining such occurrences as spatial phenomena. To this end, we established the following objectives. First, we aimed to analyze the current status of housing abandonment in various regions based on the address data of the abandoned houses. Second, we aimed to identify the spatial characteristics of abandoned houses based on spatial autocorrelation analysis. Third, we aimed to select variables based on the literature review and analyze the factors affecting housing abandonment through spatial regression analysis. Lastly, we aimed to explore the correlation between regional characteristics and the occurrence of housing abandonment, and to derive the factors influencing housing abandonment. Based on the results, it was possible to extract potential concentration zones of abandoned houses. Outlining potential problem areas is expected to help form a sustainable community and result in preventive measures to counter the effects of factors that lead to the abandonment of houses.