VT Census Case Studies : Real Capital Analytics

Created and last modified by molfe on 09 Aug 2015

Brief Overall Description of the Dataset:

Real Capital Analytics records investment activity for the commercial real estate industry, looking mostly at apartments, hotels, offices and retail locations. Their report of repeat-sales regression indices for commercial real estate is referred to as the Moody’s/REAL CPPI. In 2015, RCA began to quantify the price value of walkability for commercial properties in the RCA & Walk Score CPPI.  These datasets look at the distance and walkability from apartments and hotels to places of school, work and entertainment, in comparison to housing cost.

Link: https://www.rcanalytics.com/Public/rca_cppi.aspx

Date Inventory Completed: 05/22/2015

Screening

  • Is the data collected opinion-based?
  • Is the data collection recurring (must be collected at least annually)?
  • Is there data available for 2013?
  • 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 purpose of collecting this data is to track trends in the commercial property market across the country.

  • Why is it collected and how does the organization use it?

The data is collected in order to allow lenders and investors best navigate the large commercial property market across the country.

  • Who else uses the data?

Investors, lenders, businesses

  • Who do they sell the data to?

Investors, lenders, businesses

 

Method

  • What is the data collection method? 

Data is collected from other third party databases, which are not listed on their website.

  • What is the type of data collected? 

Administrative data

  • If designed, who created the questions?

  • What is the raw source of the collected data (prior to any aggregation)? 

Researchers had linked with other databases to create their reports.


Description

  • What is the general topic of the data (1-2 words)?

Commercial real-estate prices 

  • What are the earliest and latest dates for which data is available?

December 2000 - April 2015

  • Is data collected and available periodically?

monthly

  • How soon after a reference period ends can a data source be prepared and provided? 

Approximately a month


Selectivity

  • What is the universe (e.g., population) that the data represents?

Commercial, multifamily housing and real estate in the United States


Accessibility

  • How is the data accessed? 

  • Is it open data?

Not all, some basic overview data is available on the website 

  • Any legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source?

None listed

  • Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?

For entire United States (local unknown) one year subscription- $25,000 for a full year subscription which includes the monthly reports, and an extra $35,000 for the actual raw data to work with.


Does this dataset appear to meet our needs for the Census study? YES

Explanation:

This dataset adds a deeper level of insight into the large scale commercial real-estate market, rather than the single-family home market. The data will be available as it is needed, and will be up to date.

Full Inventory

Description

  • What is the general contents of the data source?

Volumes of properties closed/ in contract (in $mil), number of properties sold, average price of sold properties

  • Features
    • What is the temporal nature of the data: longitudinal, time-series, or one time point?

Time-series

    • Geospatial? If Yes, at what level?

Yes, at a state level


Metadata

  • Is there information available to assess the transparency and soundness of the methods to gather the data for our purposes?

“While the transparency of investment markets and availability of information varies greatly by country and market, RCA works hard to capture all relevant information possible. The information available through RCA is far more comprehensive than anything currently available in the public domain. Although mistakes and omissions do occur, the information is updated and revised continuously.”Is there a description of each variable in the source along with their valid values?

  • Are there unique IDs for unique elements that can be used for linking data?

No

  • Is there a data dictionary or codebook?

No

 

Selectivity

  • What unit is represented at the record level of the data source? 

Property

  • Does this universe match the stated intentions for the data collection? If not, what has been included or excluded and why?

Uknown

  • What is the sampling technique used (if applicable)?

“RCA research is concentrated on commercial property and portfolio sales of $2.5 million or greater in the US, and $10 million or greater outside of the US.” Other than that, none listed.

  • What was the coverage?

Not listed


Stability/Coherence

  • Were there any changes to the universe of data being captured (including geographical areas covered) and if so what were they?

None

  • Were there any changes in the data capture method and if so what were they? (e.g., revised questions, data collection mode, classification categories, algorithms for social media data)

None

  • Were there any changes in the sources of data and if so what were they? 

None

 

Accuracy

  • Any known sources of error?

None listed

  • Describe any quality control checks performed by the data’s owner.

Update and revise for error continuously

 

Accessibility

  • Any records or fields collected, but not included in data source, such as for confidentiality reasons)? 

None listed

  • Is there a subset of variables and/or data that is must be obtained through a separate process?? If yes, is there a separate legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source? Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?

None listed

 

Privacy and security

  • Was consent given by participant? If so, how was consent given?

Yes, all data was retrieved properly from the outside sources

  • Are there legal limitations or restrictions on the use of the data? 

None listed

  • What confidentiality policies does the source have? 

None listed

 

Research

  • What research has been done with this dataset? 

None listed

  • Include any links to research if provided:
  • List any other data use notes provided by the supplier.

 

Gaps/Concerns

  • Feasibility - can all jurisdiction levels provide the data (if applicable)?
  • Data ownership - a lack of clarity in legal guidance stemming from a lack of clarity with who owns digital data?
  • Data collection authority - what data is reasonably private and what constitutes unwarranted intrusion?
  • Describe any other notes you have or any gaps/concerns you see with this dataset: