How Real Estate Ads Correlate to Final Sales Price

September 14, 2008 – 12:42 pm

80 pages into the book Freakonomics, I find it informational and fun to read. It will certainly change my views on some day-to-day activities. The part on real estate agents is so interesting that I decide to write it down. Data show that some common terms used in real estate ads are correlated or negatively correlated to the final sales prices.

5 terms correlated to a higher sales price:

  • granite
  • state-of-art
  • corian
  • maple
  • gourmet

5 terms correlated to a lower sales price:

  • fantastic (ambiguous adjective, the house doesn’t have many specific attributes worth describing)
  • spacious (decrepit or impractical)
  • ! (false enthusiasm)
  • charming (same as “fantastic”)
  • great neighborhood (“this house isn’t very nice but others nearby maybe”)

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