Training Program

Mid-level to senior officials and compilers responsible for, or planning to introduce or develop residential property price indexes (RPPI).

Participants should have a degree in economics or statistics or equivalent experience.

This course, presented by the IMF Statistics Department, reviews data sources and methods for compiling RPPIs and outlines strategic issues for country-specific application. Emphasis is given to the importance of evaluating alternative data sources for compiling RPPIs in terms of coverage, timeliness, richness in terms of supporting a quality-mix methodology, suitability of a price measure, and weighting. Trade-offs involved in selecting data sources are considered, as are strategies for longer-run development of data sources. The methodological component of the course emphasizes the quality-mix problem; a change in the mix of properties transacted each period can bias measures of change in average prices. Mix-adjustment by stratification and hedonic regression are the main methods used to deal with this issue and interactive workshops deal with these topics. The course also highlights how data source and methodological issues are intertwined. The course follows the principles of the 2013 Handbook on RPPIs published by Eurostat, ILO, IMF, OECD, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), and World Bank.