Forecasting Assignment

Zillow has data on median housing rents for the 50 states from November 2010 to July 2017. See Excel Spreadsheet. (Reference: http://www.zillow.com/research/data/ ) You may work with a partner on this activity.

1. Choose only one of the 50 states. Plot the time series data in Excel and determine the data pattern (i.e. stable, trend, seasonal, cyclical).

2. Select an appropriate forecasting method and explain why you choose this method.

3. Use the forecasting model to prepare forecasts in Excel and calculate the mean absolute deviation (MAD).

4. Using the forecasting method selected, forecast for August 2017.

Submit your spreadsheet in ilearn. If you work with a partner, turn in only one spreadsheet and put both names on the spreadsheet and the file name. The other person can turn in a word document that simply states who they worked with.