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Computer-Assisted Reporting
Prof. Dan Berkowitz
The database IC Rentals is a FoxPro file on the class hard drives that contains information about rental properties in Iowa City (the data are recent but not quite current). Landlords are required to register rental housing and allow it to be inspected by the city on a regular basis. This exercise explores several aspects of Iowa City apartment rentals that could lead to an in-depth news story.
1. Open a new query with the file IC Rentals. We will focus on apartments. Because the database contains houses, duplexes and rooming houses, we need to create a filter to only allow properties with more than 2 units. Add this filter to your query box.
2. To focus on owners of properties, create queries for number of properties and number of units by owner. Who are the top owners by each criterion?
3. Many properties are managed by a person or management firm. create queries for number of properties and number of units by manager. Who are the top managers by each criterion?
4. Not all properties are owned by people living in Iowa. Create queries for number of properties and number of units by absentee owner. Who are the top absentee owners by each criterion? (hint: to create a filter that works, you will need to use the % wildcard in your selection criteria.) What proportion of rentals are owned by absentee landlords? (hint: you can query the whole database without the "group by" to get a total number of units for the whole database and then calculate the percentage manually.)
5. It is also useful to consider concentration of ownership. Many renters think that most apartments are owned by 2 or 3 companies. Find the top ten owners again, the number of units they own, and build a spreadsheet that shows (a) the percentage each owns, (b) the percentage the top 10 own and (c) the total number of apartments in the database.
6. What story angles could be developed for this story? What kinds of interviews would you conduct? What quality control concerns surfaced during your analysis of this database?
This assignment is due in class on Wednesday, October 28, 1998.