Inspiration
The COVID-19 Pandemic has affected us in many ways, reshaping how we live and the places we call home. With remote work becoming mainstream, the decades-old assumption that "proximity to downtown = apartment success" crumbled overnight. We were inspired by the dramatic quartile transition matrix in the challenge data—only 20% of properties stayed in the same performance tier between 2015-2020 and 2022-2025. 89 properties went from worst to first. We wanted to understand: what changed in these neighborhoods, and how can investors identify the next wave of winners?
How we built it
Inspired by a visual-aid based model from last year's datathon, we set out to create not only a predictive model, but an easy to understand visual aid depicting the gradual changes as renter's preferences changed over time. As such, we incorporated geocoding to enhance our final product. We also decided to incorporate Gemini API, meaning that conclusions from data are not only limited to the data we were presented during this project, but also other kinds of data in the future that can be inputted and re-evaluated with Gemini API. We built in a natural progression from testing to understanding to modelling to extrapolating data. By giving the data a voice, it no longer requires the data skillset, but only inputting data to garner conclusions about the housing market.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Achieved 97% R² on RevPAR prediction (16% improvement over linear baseline) with interpretable feature importance, utilizing LightGBM Self-taught Gemini integration, improved data synthesis through AI-agent workflow Built useful tool that reduces analyst time, while maintaining professional quality Self-taught GeoCode and learned how to represent data visually over time.
What's next for ThirdEye
We would like to tst our model on larger samples of data, spanning from rural to urban to ultra-urban environments, as we are interested in how the spread of 'work-from-home' life has affected the profitability of rural vs urban environments. This helps us answer teh qeustion of "How has COVID-19 created migration to and from big cities, and how does it impact REVPAR and profitability for investment?"
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