Utilized Kaggle's extensive dataset to conduct a comprehensive analysis of housing data pertaining to Ames, Iowa.
Primary Objective: Empower individuals seeking residence in Ames, Iowa to assess neighborhood characteristics and make informed decisions on their choice of residence, guided by the frequency and sale prices of these characteristics within each neighborhood.
Upon accessing the dashboard, you'll be greeted by a welcoming landing page. This initial view offers a snapshot of valuable information, providing insights into the property dataset.
- Data Preview: An expandable section displays a preview of the loaded dataset, allowing users to quickly assess its structure.
- About Ames: The About Ames section provides a succinct overview of the city's background. Nestled in Story County, Iowa, Ames is recognized for its central location, situated approximately 30 miles north of Des Moines. Notably, it serves as the home of Iowa State University, a key hub of education and innovation. The summary offers a glimpse into Ames' significance, emphasizing its role as a vibrant community with cultural and academic richness.
- Geographical and Home Value Summary: The Geographical and Home Value Summary offers a concise overview of Ames, Iowa. It is a city situated in Story County, centrally located in Iowa and recognized as the home of Iowa State University. The summary touches upon general population trends, the median home value during a specific timeframe, and provides a glimpse into the geographical aspects of Ames, allowing for a quick understanding of its character and significance.
- Crime Rate Summary: The Crime Rate Summary provides a quick understanding of the safety landscape in Ames, Iowa. It presents key crime rates per 100,000 people in 2010, including metrics for murder, rape, robbery, assault, property crime, burglary, larceny, and auto theft. This succinct summary serves as an essential reference, allowing users to assess and compare crime trends within the community at a glance.
- Price and Sale Summary: The Price and Sale Summary delivers a snapshot of the real estate landscape in Ames. It encompasses essential indicators such as the average and median sale prices, total sales count, as well as the minimum and maximum sale prices, offering a comprehensive overview of the market's dynamics. Additionally, insights into the average price per square foot for both ground and basement areas provide a nuanced perspective on pricing trends, empowering users to make informed decisions in the real estate domain.
- Neighborhood Analysis: The Neighborhood Analysis section illuminates key aspects of Ames' various neighborhoods. Through dynamic visualizations, users can discern the frequency of different neighborhoods and gain insights into their popularity. Furthermore, the analysis extends to average sale prices across neighborhoods, aiding in the identification of areas with distinct market characteristics. The presentation of the top 10 neighborhoods by average sale price offers a quick reference to areas where property values may exhibit unique trends, facilitating a deeper understanding of the local real estate landscape.
(at 50% zoom view)
(at 33% zoom view)
The Property and Building Analysis section provides a comprehensive exploration of the dataset, offering valuable insights into property features and building classifications. Key components include:
- Building Class Explanation Table: A table enumerates various building classes with clear explanations, aiding users in understanding the significance of each class.
- Distribution of Building Classes: A dynamic pie chart illustrates the distribution of building classes based on their counts, providing an overview of the dataset's composition.
- Dropdown and Sliders: Users can look at, filter, and explore each graph and their characteristics through a dropdown containing specific variables and interactive sliders, refining the dataset based on price range, original construction date, and remodel date.
- Building Class Filtering: Users can select specific building classes and explore their characteristics through interactive sliders, refining the dataset based on price range, original construction date, and remodel date.
- Neighborhood Analysis: Stacked bar charts highlight the top neighborhoods based on selected building features, offering insights into how these features are distributed across different areas.
- Property Assessment Metrics: Users can assess property features like material quality, condition ratings, and fireplace quality. Stacked bar charts showcase the frequency of these features in the top neighborhoods, providing a nuanced understanding.
- Dwelling and Unique Features: Analysis extends to dwelling types and unique features such as pool quality and fence quality. Stacked bar charts reveal feature distribution in the top neighborhoods within specified price and date ranges.
- Gauge Charts: Gauge charts offer a visual representation of average quality and condition ratings, enhancing the overall understanding of property assessments. This section empowers users to delve into the dataset, explore building classes, assess property features, and gain neighborhood-specific insights for informed decision-making in real estate analysis.
- Indoor Size: The Indoor Size section empowers users to investigate features such as finished basement area. Through sliders for price, construction date, and remodel date, users can tailor their analysis. The section presents graphs that unveil insights into top neighborhoods and the distribution of basement and ground floor variables.
- Outdoor Size: In the Outdoor Size section, users can delve into features like lot size, utilizing sliders for price, construction date, and remodel date. Informative charts visually represent top neighborhoods and the distribution of porch counts, providing a comprehensive exploration experience.
(at 50% zoom view)
The "Sales Analysis" section provides a comprehensive exploration of the dataset, offering valuable insights into property sales trends, average prices, and construction/remodel dates.
- Price Range Slider: Dynamically filter sales data based on specified price ranges, allowing users to focus their analysis on properties within their desired financial scope.
- Original Construction Date and Remodel Date Sliders: Filter properties based on the original construction and remodel dates, offering insights into how these factors influence sales frequencies and average sale prices over time.
- Neighborhood Dropdown: Select specific neighborhoods for a detailed analysis of sales trends, providing valuable insights into how different areas contribute to overall market dynamics.
- Charts for Original Construction and Remodel Dates: Visualize the frequency of property sales over time, segmented by original construction and remodel dates. Scatter plots complement line charts to enhance data interpretation.
- Charts for Average Sale Prices Over Time: Explore trends in average sale prices over time, both for the entire dataset and specific neighborhoods. Scatter plots provide additional data points for a more comprehensive analysis.
- Charts for Original Construction Date and Remodel Date by Neighborhood: Drill down into specific neighborhoods to analyze how original construction dates and remodel dates influence average sale prices, providing localized insights.
- Month and Year Sold Frequency Charts: Examine the frequency of property sales based on the month and year of sale, uncovering seasonal and yearly patterns that contribute to a nuanced understanding of market dynamics.
- Month and Year Sold Average Sale Price Charts: Understand the average sale prices over time, both monthly and yearly, allowing users to identify trends and patterns in property values for more informed decision-making.
- Neighborhood-Specific Analysis: Conduct in-depth analysis by selecting specific neighborhoods for a detailed exploration of trends in original construction, remodel dates, and average sale prices, tailoring insights to specific geographic areas.
Run the ames_house_price_dashboard.py file, and you will see the dashboard in your locally hosted site
- Home Page Navigation: To begin exploring different information on the Ames House Price Dashboard, simply click on the arrow button on the top left hand corner and go through each tab.
- Data Preview Every page has a data preview section where you can click on it to see a table containing the data from the dataset used for the dashboard.
- Graphical Insights: Inside each tab, you'll find sections with different graphs.
- Variable Selection: Tailoring your analysis to specific variables is a breeze. In each section of each page, utilize the dropdown menu to select the variable of interest. By selecting different variables, you can observe how they influence the graphs.
- Sliders: You can look at, filter, and explore each graph and their characteristics through the three interactive sliders, refining the dataset based on price range, original construction date, and remodel date.
- Graph Types: Depending on the section and variables, you'll encounter various graph types. These include stacked bar charts, histograms, and line graphs. The choice of graph type enhances the clarity and depth of insights.
- Interactive Data Points: Dive deeper into the specifics of each data point or bar. Hover your cursor over them, and detailed information, such as neighborhood, x-axis, and y-axis values, will be readily displayed.
- Exploration at Your Fingertips: Ready to explore another category? Simply click on the tab of your choice and embark on your journey of discovery. The wealth of information within the Ames Housing dataset is right at your fingertips!
- Moving the Graph: For adjusting the position of the graph, navigate to the top right corner and click on the icon featuring four arrows. Hold the click and move your mouse to explore specific areas of interest.
- Selecting Bars in Bar/Histogram Graphs: To select certain bars in a bar/histogram graph, click on the dotted square icon, and then hold and move your mouse to encompass the desired bars. To go back to original view, double click on the graph.
- Selecting Specific Legend Entry in Bar/Histogram Graphs: To select a specific legend entry to look at the information for that entry in a bar/histogram graph, double click on an entry you want to explore, which will show you only the data of that entry. To go back to original view, double click on the legend.
- Zooming In and Out: Enabling zoom functionality is a breeze. Click on the square icon with a plus sign to zoom in, or the square with a minus sign to zoom out.
- Viewing Data Point Details: To access specific value descriptions on the graph, hover over the data point of interest. A display box will appear, containing relevant information such as neighborhood, x-axis, and y-axis values.
- Customizing Neighborhood Display: Tailor your graph's presentation by choosing which neighborhoods to include or exclude. In the legend on the right side of the graph, simply click on the neighborhoods you wish to hide or reveal. Effortlessly refine your visualizations to meet your needs.
I want to express my gratitude to my fellow mentor, Charlie, for his invaluable guidance in dashboard design, chart selection, and variable choice, which greatly contributed to the quality of the project.
https://www.kaggle.com/competitions/house-prices-advanced-regression-techniques/data
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ames,_Iowa (for About Ames)
- https://medium.com/@ying.geng5/house-price-analysis-of-ames-iowa-2006-2010-66e307f836f#:~:text=The%20median%20sale%20price%20for,cheaper%20than%20the%20national%20average. (for Median Home Value)
- https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/amescityiowa# (for Population)
- https://www.bestplaces.net/crime/city/iowa/ames (for Crime Rates)