Improved price indexes for real estate: Measuring the course of Swedish housing prices

This paper presents an improved methodology for estimating asset prices for real estate and other durables. The method is used to analyze house price dynamics by exploiting an unusually rich and detailed body of data-extensive descriptive and financial information on every house sale in Sweden during a 12-year period. The results confirm the importance of many aspects of quality in affecting the course of housing prices,as well as the role of individual-specific and idiosyncratic aspects of housing. The results are compared with the price trends produced by more primitive methods and published by official sources. (C) 1998 Academic Press.