SAS Visual Data Discovery for MBs

CARY, N.C.: The National Association of REALTORS (NAR) wants to provide its membership with the best possible information about the US housing market. Recently, the NAR research department implemented SAS Visual Data discovery in order to provide members with updated foreclosure and other market information at a time of major uncertainties in the housing markets.

“Foreclosure sales were only a blip on the radar screen five years ago,” said George Ratiu, NAR economist. “This is an example of exploding data volumes that can present serious data integration issues. Data access is also critical. In addition to national figures, people look to us for insights into local data. SAS Visual Data Discovery, from the leader in business analytics, made an immediate difference. With SAS, NAR can more quickly surface meaningful insights about home buyers, sellers and the economy. Reports that once required hours for data integration and analysis can now take as little as five minutes. NAR can deliver increasingly timely market reports that provide REALTOR members and other stakeholders, such as government agencies, with improved information to understand the changing housing markets.”

SAS predictive analytics to deliver critical direction

As indicated by Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Dr. Lawrence Yun, “The staff is enthusiastic about our increasing implementation of SAS. They told me that SAS Visual Data Discovery is helping us overcome spreadsheet limitations and helps to quickly surface comprehensive information.”

According to NAR economist Gregg Stratton, “Spreadsheets aren’t analyst-friendly, require excessive resources, produce errors and severely limit access to critical data. SAS gives us better detail to back up the spreadsheet conclusions. This is a major advance for us. In a few months SAS will become increasingly the primary data analysis vehicle for much of our work.”

With approximately 350 employees, NAR is America's largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of residential and commercial real estate. “SAS helps NAR fulfill its commitment of helping working families achieve their home ownership dreams,” said Matthew Mikell, Global Marketing Manager for SAS Solutions for small to midsize businesses (SMBs). “Housing is at the core of this economic crisis and SAS predictive analytics will deliver critical direction as NAR works to provide information and viewpoints focused on the revitalization of housing markets.”

SAS continues to put a focus on small to midsize businesses (SMBs). Its partner program and targeted SMB pricing bundles enable resellers to deliver powerful SAS software to any industry. For example, Strong Tower Solutions Inc. made NAR’s transition to SAS extremely smooth. NAR applauds the Strong Tower team’s flexibility and responsiveness.

"We help clients like NAR use SAS to transform and analyze data in a more efficient and accurate manner," said Paul Norton, president at Strong Tower Solutions. "SAS Visual Data Discovery was the best match for this client's business and technical needs and we expect the value of the relationship to grow as they learn to distribute the intelligence they create with SAS to their information consumers."