Statistical Methods for Analysis of the Homeowner's Impact on Property Valuation and Its Relation to the Mortgage Portfolio

Abstract: The current method for house valuations in mortgage portfolio models corresponds to applying a residential property price index (RPPI) to the purchasing price (or last known valuation). This thesis introduces an alternative house valuation method, which combines the current one with the bank's customer data. This approach shows that the gap between the actual house value and the current estimated house value can to some extent be explained by customer attributes, especially for houses where the homeowner is a defaulted customer. The inclusion of customer attributes can either reduce false overestimation or predict whether or not the current valuation is an overestimation or underestimation. This particular property is of interest in credit risk, as false overestimations can have negative impacts on the mortgage portfolio. The statistical methods that were used in this thesis were the data mining techniques regression and clustering.