Alternative Housing Price Indices: An Evaluation

This paper reports on research in which eleven alternative housing price indices are constructed for two Vancouver neighbourhoods for the period from 1957 to 1979. Three criteria for good indices are presented, and the eleven indices, as well as several government and industry indices are evaluated in accordance with those criteria. It is determined that, almost surprisingly, an index based on mean sales values performs well, as do several of the hedonic price equation based indices. Several policy implications of the analysis are then discussed.