GIS
Lab marries the many recent and exciting developments in spatial
econometrics with the strength and flexibility of GIS technology.
Current research projects include: modeling the site selection
process for retail firms, examining spatial disparities in
mortgage lending, developing valuation models for residential real
estate, investigating inter-neighborhood inequities in property
tax assessments, and advancing research in spatial econometric
techniques. A recent project explicitly modeled the spatial
dependence in property values as a function of both distance and
direction between properties in the same geographic sub-market.
The finding that property values are not only auto-correlated with
distance, but that this autocorrelation varies with geographic
direction represents the discovery of a new pattern in real estate
data that can be exploited for many purposes. Future research
projects will continue to apply this exciting new technology in
order to advance our knowledge of real estate markets and urban
economics and public policy.
