Brief Overall Description of the Dataset:
There are a couple of different statistics this organization puts out, which include Home Sales Reports and Rental Statistics. These statistics all come from the RealEstate Business Intelligence, LLC, which is an MRIS organization. MRIS does not give out data to anyone who is not a realtor; therefore, you would not be able to get the raw data. Two examples of the data NVAR gives out can be found here: https://nvar.com/images/market-statistics/nva_feb_15.pdf and https://nvar.com/images/market-statistics/quarterly-rentals/2015/NVARRentalStatisticsfor1stQuarter2015.pdf.
Link: https://nvar.com/
Date Inventory Completed: 5/26/2015
Screening
- Is the data collected opinion-based?
- Is the data collection recurring (must be collected at least annually)?
- Is there data available for 2013?
- For Housing: Is the data collected at the property or housing unit level?
- Can we access the data by August 15th?
Purpose
What is the purpose of the organization collecting the data?
The Northern Virginia Association of Realtors: “The Northern Virginia Association of REALTORS® (NVAR) was established in 1921 as the Alexandria-Arlington-Fairfax Real Estate Board, with about 40 members. NVAR has grown to over 11,000 REALTORS® who annually transact about $11 billion of housing sales in a community of more than 2 million residents.
A premier local association, NVAR is one of the hundreds of local and state associations that comprise the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), with more than 1 million members.” The association “provides a variety of services to its members including educational opportunities, professional standards enforcement, market statistics, legislative reviews, issues lobbying, multiple listing and lockbox services, and more.”
Why is it collected and how does the organization use it?
The NVAR collects the data as part of the “variety of services” it gives to its members. Therefore, the organization uses the data as another way of drawing in realtors.
Who else uses the data?
Business, policymakers, and citizens are probably the most likely to use it.
Who do they sell the data to?
Some of the data might be available only via membership, and you would need to therefore be a realtor and pay dues.
Description
What is the general topic of the data (1-2 words)?
Home Sales and Rental Statistics
What are the earliest and latest dates for which data is available?
As early as 2000 to 2015 (of the data I looked at)
Timeliness
Is data collected and available periodically?
Yes
How soon after a reference period ends can a data source be prepared and provided?
Unknown
Selectivity
What is the universe (e.g., population) that the data represents?
Certain data sets focus on Counties in Northern Virginia, and others focus on other types of regions in Northern Virginia. Certain lines of the data sets focus on specific types of houses in Northern Virginia.
Accessibility
How is the data accessed?
PDF and/or Excel.
- Is it open data?
Yes, the data on the website is open source. The raw data is not open source.
- Any legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source?
No, not for the data you can download. However, any property level data from NVAR’s sources would be restricted.
- Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?
The data you can download does not need to be paid for, but any data that the realtors themselves would have access to would require a fee.
Does this dataset appear to meet our needs for the Census study? NO
Explanation: Since the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors gets data from MRIS, we will most likely be unable to access the property level data; therefore, NVAR is not a viable source at this time for the Census Study. We have sent out an email to NVAR to inquire about accessing individual property data but, since NVAR uses MRIS data, we are not extremely hopeful about the results of this inquiry.
**Note about MRIS data: Even though initial MRIS contact states that we have to be a realtor or be associated with realtors in order to obtain MLS data, we have been put in contact with someone from MRIS by the Center for Regional Analysis at GMU. We might be able to obtain Arlington County individual property data from this source. More information about this interaction can be found on the Center for Regional Analysis wiki page.