  This report explores the use of Zillow's housing metrics dataset to
investigate the effects of the 2008 US subprime mortgage crisis on various US
locales. We begin by exploring the causes of the recession and the metrics
available to us in the dataset. We settle on using the Zillow Home Value Index
(ZHVI) because it is seasonally adjusted and able to account for a variety of
inventory factors. Then, we explore three methodologies for quantifying
recession impact: (a) Principal Components Analysis, (b) Area Under Baseline,
and (c) ARIMA modeling and Confidence Intervals. While PCA does not yield
useable results, we ended up with six cities from both AUB and ARIMA analysis,
the top 3 "losers" and "gainers" of the 2008 recession, as determined by each
analysis. This gave us 12 cities in total. Finally, we tested the robustness of
our analysis against three "common knowledge" metrics for the recession:
geographic clustering, population trends, and unemployment rate. While we did
find some overlap between the results of our analysis and geographic
clustering, there was no positive regression outcome from comparing our
methodologies to population trends and the unemployment rate.
