In this paper, we evaluate the forecasting ability of 115 indicators to predict the housing prices and rents in 71 German cities. Above all, we are interested in whether the local business confidence indicators can allow substantially improving the forecasts, given the local nature of the...

When analyzing economic aspects at regional levels, the spatial dimension of the data plays a crucial role. This is the case as spatial data and models are often characterized by two spatial effects, namely spatial dependence and spatial heterogeneity. The field of spatial econometrics is a...

In this paper, we evaluate the forecasting ability of 145 indicators and ten types of forecast combination schemes to predict housing prices and rents in 71 German cities. We are interested in whether local business confidence indicators facilitate substantial improvements of the forecasts,...