Realtors Turn to SAS Analytics for Housing, Foreclosure Data

The ""National Association of Realtors"":http://www.realtor.org (NAR) says it wants to provide its membership with the best possible information about the U.S. housing market. To help achieve this goal, the NAR research department recently implemented ""SAS Visual Data Discovery"":http://www.sas.com/technologies/analytics/statistics/datadiscovery/ to supply members with updated foreclosure and other housing market information.
According to George Ratiu, one of NAR's economist, foreclosure sales were only a blip on the radar screen five years ago, but exploding data volumes that characterize today's market can present serious data integration issues for Realtors. ""In addition to national figures, people look to us for insights into local data,"" Ratiu said. ""SAS Visual Data Discovery, from the leader in business analytics, made an immediate difference.""
Ratiu went on to explain, ""With SAS, NAR can more quickly surface meaningful insights about homebuyers, sellers, and the economy. Reports that once required hours for data integration and analysis can now take as little as five minutes. NAR can deliver increasingly timely market reports that provide REALTOR members and other stakeholders, such as government agencies, with improved information to understand the changing housing markets.""
With regional offices in 20 states, Cary, North Carolina-based ""SAS"":http://www.sas.com has been delivering business analytics software and services to clients around the globe since 1976. The company's Visual Data Discovery solution provides point-and-click access to SAS’ housing market data. The company says this tool can help Realtors obtain better analyses, faster decisions, and more effective presentation of predictive housing and foreclosure data.
Dr. Lawrence Yun, NAR's SVP and chief economist, commented, ""The staff is enthusiastic about our increasing implementation of SAS. They told me that SAS Visual Data Discovery is helping us overcome spreadsheet limitations and helps to quickly surface comprehensive information.""
NAR Economist Gregg Stratton added, ""Spreadsheets aren’t analyst-friendly, require excessive resources, produce errors and severely limit access to critical data. SAS gives us better detail to back up the spreadsheet conclusions. This is a major advance for us. In a few months SAS will become increasingly the primary data analysis vehicle for much of our work.""
With approximately 350 employees, NAR is America's largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of residential and commercial real estate. According to Matthew Mikell, SAS' global marketing manager for small and midsize business solutions, SAS is helping NAR fulfill its commitment of helping working families achieve their homeownership dreams.
""Housing is at the core of this economic crisis and SAS predictive analytics will deliver critical direction as NAR works to provide information and viewpoints focused on the revitalization of housing markets,"" Mikell said.