6464.0 - Residential Property Price Indexes: Concepts, Sources and Methods, 2014  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 30/09/2014   
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GLOSSARY


ABS
Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Aggregation
The process of combining lower level price indexes to produce higher level indexes.

ASGS
Australian statistical geography standard (ASGS). This is the standard geographical classification used in the ABS.

Attached dwellings
Dwellings which share a structural component with one or more other buildings. This may include walls, ceiling, floor or roofing. For example, flats, units and apartments and semi-detached, row and terrace houses.

Attached Dwellings Price Index (ADPI)
A measure of the price change of attached dwellings within the GCCSAs between two periods.

Chain linking
The process by which an index series based on one set of weights is joined to another index series based on a different set of weights.

Consumer Price Index (CPI)
A general indicator of the rate of change in prices paid by households for consumer goods and services.

Dwelling
A suite or rooms contained within a building which are self-contained and intended for long-term residential use. To be self-contained the suite of rooms must possess cooking and bathing/shower facilities as building fixtures.

Elementary aggregate
The lowest level of commodity classification in ABS price indexes and the only level for which index numbers are constructed by direct reference to price data. In the case of the indexes, this relates to individual strata.

Established House Price Index (HPI)
A measure of the price change in all established detached houses within the eight GCCSAs between two periods.

Established houses
Detached residential dwellings on their own block of land regardless of age (i.e. Including new houses sold as a house/land package as well as second hand houses).

Exchange date
The date at which the agreed market price for a dwelling is recorded.

Final estimate
The estimate is final once it is considered complete and is only revised in exceptional circumstances.

Greater Capital City Statistical Areas (GCCSAs)
These areas capture the socio-economic extent of the state/territory capital cities for statistical purposes. The boundary is set to include the population who regularly socialise, shop or work within the city, but live in the small towns and rural areas surrounding the city.

Indexation
The periodic adjustment of a money value according to changes in a price index.

Index points change
The change in an index number series from one period to another expressed in terms of the difference in the number of index points in each of the index numbers.

Index reference period
The period for which an index is given a value of 100.0, usually a financial year. The current index reference period for the residential property price indexes is 2011-12 = 100.0.

Link period
The link period is the quarter in which the index is calculated on both the old weights and structure and the new weights and structure.

Mean price
The average dwelling value in the reference period. It is derived by taking the total value of residential dwellings and dividing by the estimated number of dwellings in the stock.

Median price
The mid-point of dwelling values in the reference period. Half of all properties bought/sold in the period did so at a price below the median, the other half had a price above the median.

Preliminary estimate
The estimate is preliminary when it is not considered complete and is subject to revision.

Price index
A measure of the proportionate, or percentage, changes in a set of prices over time relative to a given reference period.

Price levels
Actual money values in a particular period of time.

Price movement
Changes in price levels between two or more periods. Movements can be expressed in money values, as price relatives, changes in index points or as percentage changes.

Price reference period
The period for which prices are used as denominators in the index calculation.

Price relative
A measure of price movements. The ratio of the price level in one period to the price level in another.

Quality adjustment
The elimination of the effect that changes in the quality have on price in order to isolate the pure price change.

Re-referencing
Re-referencing is the process which sets a new index reference period for a price index.

Residential Property Price Index (RPPI)
An aggregation of the HPI and ADPI, measuring the price change in all residential dwellings within the eight GCCSAs between two periods.

Rest of State
Within each state or territory the area not defined as being part of the greater capital city.

Socio-Economic Index For Areas (SEIFA)
Socio-Economic Index For Areas (cat. no. 2039.0). A ranking of areas in Australia according to relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage using information from the census of population and housing. People's access to material and social resources, and their ability to participate in society is the broad definition used by the ABS to define relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage.

Strata
The finest level of groupings based on similar characteristics. The total sample of residential dwellings is separated into groups in a way that balances homogeneity of suburbs with sufficient sales observations to construct reliable measures of price movements.

The indexes
The collective term for the RPPI, ADPI and HPI.

Total value of dwelling stock
An estimate which combines the price of dwellings and the total number of dwellings.

Transfers
The record of sale for established houses and attached dwellings taken from the residential property sales dataset.

Unstratified medians
The midpoint of sales data taken from the residential property sales dataset. No grouping (stratifying) or weighting is applied.

Value aggregate
The aggregate value in dollars of the housing stock (including land). In compiling the indexes, value aggregates serve as value weights which are updated each quarter using the price relatives for each stratum.

Valuers-General
Valuers-General (VGs) or equivalent government bodies in each state/territory responsible for the recording of property transfers.

Wage Price Index (WPI)
Measures changes in the price of wage expenditure.

Weight
In the case of the RPPI, the measure of the importance of a stratum in the index relative to the other strata. Weights can be expressed in either quantity or value terms.

Weighted average
An average that is obtained by combining prices or price indexes according to the relative importance of each price index.

Weight reference period
The period to which the fixed quantity weights relate. (see also “index reference period.”)