<p>The impact of rising housing prices on talent attraction and resulting innovation output in cities has garnered significant attention. However, most existing studies have overlooked the moderating effect of commuting distance when investigating the association between housing prices and innovation, employing various estimating methodologies. To address this research gap, this study analyzes the focused topic using mobile signaling data and relevant macro data from Shanghai City Statistical Yearbooks for the period 2015 to 2022. The empirical findings reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between housing prices and regional innovation, indicating that as housing prices initially rise, regional innovation also rises before eventually decreasing. In the downtown area, high housing prices have a tendency to diminish innovation outcomes. Whereas the urban fringe area experiences a reverse effect. Additionally, this study reveals that commuting distance plays a significant moderating role in the relationship between housing prices and innovation. Our findings contribute to optimizing the spatial structure of urban employment and population distribution while providing valuable guidance for relevant high-tech enterprises and government departments in designing employee-oriented housing policies aligned with employment locations, thereby supporting future urban management policymaking.</p>