Alternative Methods of Variable Selection: An Application to Real Estate Assessment

This article compares alternative methods of variable selection using data from a real estate assessment project. Various stepwise methods are compared with the "all possible regression" solution and a variable set selected on "a priori" considerations. The methods are evaluated by the predictive performance of the estimated regression equation in a holdout sample. One of the major conclusions of the study is that the most expensive and time consuming method, "all possible regression," does not yield the best predictions. In addition, the variables selected judgmentally produced predictions that were not appreciably different from the other methods. Copyright American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.