Evaluating the utility of a commercial data source for estimating property tax amounts

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Seeskin, Zachary H.

Affiliations: NORC at the University of Chicago, 55 E. Monroe Street, 31s⁢t Floor, Chicago, IL 60603, USA | Tel.: +1 312 325 2506; E-mail: Seeskin-Zachary@norc.org

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: NORC at the University of Chicago, 55 E. Monroe Street, 31

Abstract: This paper investigates the utility of a commercial property tax data from CoreLogic, Inc. (CoreLogic) aggregated from county and township governments from across the country, for use to improve American Community Survey (ACS) estimates of property tax amounts for single-family homes. Particularly, the research uses linkages of the CoreLogic file to the 2010 ACS to evaluate the use of CoreLogic data directly to replace survey responses for estimation of property tax amounts, potentially reducing measurement error and respondent burden. I find that the coverage of CoreLogic data varies among geographic areas across the U.S., as does the correspondence between ACS and CoreLogic property taxes. Large differences between CoreLogic and ACS property taxes in some instances may reflect conceptual differences between what is collected in the two data sources for certain counties. This research draws attentions to the challenges of using non-survey data sources that are aggregated from many state or local agencies with different practices for data collection and curation.

Keywords: Data quality, respondent burden, measurement error, linked data

DOI: 10.3233/SJI-180452

Journal: Statistical Journal of the IAOS, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 543-551, 2018