Christoph Nolte, Kevin J. Boyle, Anita M. Chaudhry, Christopher Clapp, Dennis Guignet, Hannah Hennighausen, Ido Kushner, Yanjun Liao, Saleh Mamun, Adam Pollack, Jesse Richardson, Shelby Sundquist, Kristen Swedberg and Johannes H. Uhl
We discuss data quality and modeling issues inherent in the use of nationwide property data to value environmental amenities. By example of Zillow’s Transaction and Assessment Database, a real estate database covering the United States, we identify challenges and propose guidance for (1) identifying arm’s-length sales; (2) geolocating parcels and buildings; (3) identifying temporal links between transaction, assessor, and parcel data; (4) identifying property types, such as single-family homes and vacant lands; and (5) dealing with missing or mismeasured data for standard housing attributes. We review current practice and show that how researchers address these issues can meaningfully influence research findings.