jtanumihardja/bigdataforcities_ppua5262

This repo contains the project from PPUA 5262 Big Data for Cities class (Seeing Boston Neighborhoods through Administrative Data).

Big Data For Cities (PPUA5262)

Class Description & Tools

This repo contains the project from Public Policy and Urban Administration (PPUA) 5262 Big Data for Cities class. The main theme for this class is "seeing Boston neighborhoods through administrative data".

R Studio is used to process and visualize the dataset throughout the semester to gain insights gradually until the final project submission. Wordpress is utilized to post weekly data analysis blog assignments.

Datasets

The assigned dataset for the class project is the Craigslist Housing Postings in Massachusetts dataset by Boston Area Research Initiative (BARI). According to the description, this dataset contains Craigslist housing listings (2020 - 2021) in the regions of Massachusetts as designated by Craigslist.

Other datasets are also used to further analyze the implication of this dataset in Boston's neighborhood as discussed in project documents. The examples includes Google Places.POI and Census Indicator.

Project Deriverables

• All WordPress articles can be found here
• City Exploration #1: Tour of Neighborhood
• City Exploration #2: : Neighborhood through the Lens of Public Media
• New Measures and Latent Constructs
• Correlations
• Comparing Groups (t-test and ANOVA)
• Final Report: Analysis of Craigslist Housing Postings in Boston, MA

Dataset Fun Facts

• The median rental property price for Massachusetts is $1,895 while it is $2,096 for Greater Boston Area, indicating the high demand for the latter area.
• More postings occurred during the summer months (May – July). Lower total postings occurred during the fall months (October – December).
• Top-three locations with the most postings in Greater Boston are Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston, respectively. It is surprising that Boston is not the top location.
• Renters should expect to pay $2.3 per square foot (sq.ft.) for a property in Greater Boston Area. Among those areas, Cambridge has the widest price range.
• More postings in the Greater Boston Area are apartment-related (67%). Only 25% of the postings can be categorized as single-family houses related. The mean and median prices for apartment- and housing-related postings are surprisingly similar.
• The average price for an apartment listing is generally higher in 2020 than in 2021, which might indicate the lack of demand in the later year.
• Only 12% of postings in the Greater Boston Area are student related.