Silicon Valley Real Estate Investor

Part 3 – Looking beyond the trend

Once you as a data analyst have determined a trend (and I’m assuming for purposes of this article that this is a real trend and not wishful interpretation of “noise”), that’s when it really gets interesting.

It’s often not enough just to say that a key indicator is going up or down. Rather than use that as a conclusion, it is important to use that a starting point for a series of other questions that will help you understand better the matter at hand. Some of these questions might include: …

Part 2 – Understanding how to interpret Margin of Error

Different sampling choices and methods yield results with different margins of error. This is like saying that the actual answer could be higher or lower by a certain (also calculatable) amount.

For example …

Part 1 – Understanding Seasonally Adjusted Data

If you’ve ever read market reports, economic data, housing statistics, etc, you’ve probably experienced that strange sense of wondering whether the numbers in front of you are really all that meaningful or significant. Sure, they may seem impressive, but, is up really up, and is a trend really a trend? Are we really seeing what we think we’re seeing? Do our figures represent the whole picture, or are they distracting us from another truth? As one Aaron Levenstein once said, “Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.”