CommunityScale builds custom statistical, spatial, and economic models to answer the specific questions communities face. Some questions don’t fit an off-the-shelf template. What happens to property values next to affordable housing? How do housing and transportation costs compound across a region? What’s the buildout capacity of a new district?

Modeling work covers demographic and household forecasts using cohort-component population projection, Leslie matrix methods for population forecasting, and ARIMA trend forecasts for cohort change ratios; spatial and regional modeling including multi-criteria indices; buildout and capacity analysis at the parcel level under proposed zoning; and econometric and causal models including panel regressions, difference-in-differences, and spillover analyses. Every model is documented, reproducible, and auditable, and published so that clients and their peers can understand and defend the conclusions.

Projects featuring custom modeling:

• MAPA regional market value analysis
• Central Massachusetts regional housing and transportation study
• Central Indiana regional housing study
• Honolulu comprehensive housing plan

Related reading:

• Mapping exposure to AI workforce disruption
• Bayesian exploration of housing unit counts
• An empirical approach to quantifying and modeling housing preferences
• How CommunityScale forecasts households by income group
• Housing shortage and equilibrium calculations
• Our approach to open source mapping