A Regression Method for Real Estate Price Index Construction

Quality differences make estimation of price indexes for real properties difficult, but these can be largely avoided by basing an index on sales prices of the same property at different times. The problem of combining price relatives of repeat sales of properties to obtain a price index can be converted into a regression problem, and standard techniques of regression analysis can be used to estimate the index. This method of estimation is more efficient than others for combining price relatives in that it utilizes information about the price index for earlier periods contained in sales prices in later periods. Standard errors of the estimated index numbers can be readily computed using the regression method, and it permits certain effects on the value of real properties to be eliminated from the index.