Repeat Sales Regression on Heterogeneous Properties

This paper proposes a generalized repeat sales regression (GRSR) that uses repeat sales from the entire market, in which properties may have heterogeneous value appreciation processes, to estimate price indices for not only the entire market, but also submarkets or customized portfolios of properties that only have small numbers of value observations. Monte Carlo simulations provide strong evidence that the GRSR indices more accurately measure the index for the entire market as well as individual property value appreciation than conventional RSR indices. This paper also proposes a Chi-square test to detect the heterogeneity in property value appreciation across submarkets/portfolios, and use simulations to show that the test is powerful in small samples. This paper finally illustrates the application of the GRSR using a historical dataset of the Chicago housing market from 1970 to 1986.