Purpose: Preparing a report for your client to gain insights into the characteristics

of different types of houses sold.

Business Analytics Applications: descriptive analytics, cluster analysis

Background: The AMESHOUSING3 dataset contains data on the characteristics of 300 houses sold. The client would like to understand the different grouping of houses sold.

Guidelines: Use only housing characteristics data (ie. no sales price variables) for the cluster analysis. When choosing variables you need to use results from your descriptive analytics of your variables (central tendency, variation, shape, correlations). Develop a range of cluster analyses and experiment with differing numbers of clusters and variables. As a final step, analyse the relationship between your clusters and "Sale price in dollars". DO NOT include sales price in the cluster analysis itself . There is no one "right' answer, so think about and discuss in your report the rationale for the steps you take in the analysis and the reasoning for your preferred cluster model.

Format: Business report for client

Executive summary - one paragraph overview of full project including summary of results - 10 marks

Introduction - set the scene and background of client issue/problem (broad to specific issues) - 10 marks

Methodology - discuss the rationale and planned steps for your analytics process (ie. details of descriptive analytics and cluster analysis you plan to do - DO NOT include any results in this section) - 20 marks

Body and analysis - descriptive analytics results, one paragraph summary of the process and steps ultimately taken in your cluster analysis (variables and k experimented with), on paragraph summary justifying your choice of final model, then present and interpret model results (DO NOT waste space presenting other models that are not your chosen one), examine possible link with sale price variable briefly. - 50 marks

Conclusions - wrap up the exercise with recommendations for client -

Column # Name Label (optional) Type Length Details (optional) 21 Age_Sold Age of house when num 8 sold, in years 16 Basement Area Basement area in num 8 square feet 10 Bedroom_AbvGr Bedrooms above num 8 grade 31 Bonus Sale Price > num 8 $175,000 8 Central Air Presence of central char 2 air conditioning 20 Deck_Porch_Area Total area of decks num 8 and porches in square feet 11 Fireplaces Number of num 8 fireplaces 24 Foundation_2 Foundation Type char 32 17 Full_Bathroom Number of full num 8 bathrooms 12 Garage_Area Size of garage in num 8 square feet 23 Garage_Type_2 Garage attached or char 16 detachedData Information | AMESHOUSING3 | Revised 27 May 2023 9 Gr_Liv_Area Above grade num 8 (ground) living area square feet 18 Half Bathroom Number of half num 8 bathrooms 7 Heating QC Heating quality and char 4 condition 3 House_Style Style of dwelling char 12 27 House_Style2 Style of dwelling char 12 30 Log_Price Natural log of the num 8 sale price 2 Lot Area Lot size in square num 8 feet 26 Lot_Shape_2 Regular or irregular char 20 lot shape 25 Masonry_Veneer Masonry veneer or char 2 not 13 Mo Sold Month Sold (MM) num 8 5 Overall Cond Overall condition num 8 of the house 29 Overall Cond2 Overall condition num 8 of the house 4 Overall Qual Overall material num 8 and finish of the house 28 Overall_Qual2 Overall material num 8house 1 PID char 20 15 SalePrice Sale price in dollars num 8 22 Season_Sold Season when num 8 house sold 19 Total_Bathroom Total number of num 8 bathrooms (half bathrooms counted 10%) 6 Year Built Original num 8 construction year 14 Yr Sold Year Sold (YYYY) num 8 32 score num 8