Hedonic regressions are used for property price index measurement to control for changes in the quality-mix of properties transacted. The paper consolidates the hedonic time dummy approach, characteristics approach, and imputation approaches. A practical hedonic methodology is proposed that (i) is weighted at a basic level; (ii) has a new (quasi-) superlative form and thus mitigates substitution bias; (iii) is suitable for sparse data in thin markets; and (iv) only requires the periodic estimation of hedonic regressions for reference periods and is not subject to the vagrancies of misspecification and estimation issues.

This Handbook provides, for the first time, comprehensive guidelines for the compilation of Residential Property Price Indexes and explains in depth the methods and best practices used to calculate an RPPI.

This book answers the question of how exactly property price indexes should be constructed. The formation and collapse of property bubbles has had a profound impact on the economic administration of many nations. The property price bubble that began around the mid-1980s in Japan has been called the 20th century's biggest bubble. In its aftermath, the country faced a period of long-term economic stagnation dubbed the "lost decade." Sweden and the United States have also faced collapses of property bubbles in the 20th and early 21st centuries, respectively. It has been pointed out that the "information gap" that existed between policy-making authorities and the property (including housing) and financial markets was a problem. In 2009, the IMF proposed the creation of a housing price index to the G20 in order to fill this information gap, and the proposal was adopted. Furthermore, in 2011, it was suggested that the next economic crisis would be caused by a bubble in commercial property prices, and it was decided to create a commercial property index as well. This book provides practical examples of how the theory of property price indexes can be applied to the issues of property as a non-homogenous good and a technological and environmental change.

This book contains a special issue of the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, comprising thirteen articles on house price measurement. These articles address the various procedures used to compute cross-sectional or temporal house price indices. Specifically, these articles contain research that: (1) evaluates hedonic, repeat sales, or hybrid approaches to constructing house price indices; (2) evaluates alternative sources of data on house prices and corresponding housing characteristics; (3) identifies the most influential land, structural, neighborhood, and proximity determinants of house prices (and associated changes in house prices); (4) provides a methodology for identifying housing market segments; (5) incorporates spatial autocorrelation in house price indices; and (6) provides more accurate estimates of the variance in house prices.

Cities are growing worldwide and their sprawl is increasingly challenged for its pressure on open spaces and environmental quality. Economic arguments can help to decide about the trade-off between preserving environmental quality and developing housing and business surfaces, provided the benefits of environmental quality are adequately quantified. To this end, this book focuses on the use and advancement of the “hedonic approach”, an economic valuation technique that analyses and quantifies the sources of rent and property price differentials. Starting from theoretical foundations, the hedonic approach is applied to the valuation of natural land use preservation and noise abatement measures, as well as to residential segregation and discrimination, extending the analysis to the role of the buyers and sellers' identity on housing market prices and to the issue of environmental justice.

The measurement of price dynamics is by no means new endeavourin the official statistics but the process of establishing accurate price changes in time still remains challenging in many areas. One such demanding field is the application of appropriate techniques in price index development for providing amendments reflecting quality differences which might occur in the compared commodities. The book presents results of research on the applicability of hedonic methods in adjusting price indices to changes in the goods quality and test the techniques used for hedonic price indices construction using the data sets for various groups of heterogeneous goods, including used automobiles, appartments, household appliances and ICT goods.