Patent Document ID: 8140421
Application ID: 11971758
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method in a computing system having a processor for valuing a distinguished home among a population of homes each having attributes, comprising: retrieving information about each of a plurality of sales of homes among the population that have occurred since a distinguished date; dividing the plurality of sales of homes among the population that have occurred since the distinguished date into a first group and a second group; constructing a plurality of valuation sub-models, each valuation sub-model being constructed based on information about recent sales of homes among the population in the first group and attributes of the sold homes, each valuation sub-model being capable of producing a valuation for a home among the population of homes based upon attributes of the home; constructing, by the processor a valuation meta-model based on information about recent sales of homes among the population in the first group and attributes of the sold homes, the valuation meta-model being capable of specifying, for a combination of the valuations produced for a home among the plurality of homes by each of the plurality of sub-models, the relative weight to be given to the valuation produced for the home by each of the plurality of sub-models based upon the home's attributes; for each of the plurality of valuation sub-models, applying the valuation sub-model to attributes of the distinguished home to obtain a valuation of the distinguished home; applying the valuation meta-model to attributes of the distinguished home to obtain a weighting factor for each of the valuation sub-models; combining the valuations of the distinguished home obtained from the valuation sub-models in accordance with the obtained weighting factors to obtain an overall valuation for the distinguished home; and outputting the obtained overall valuation for the distinguished home.