Distance-related variables

[Dorf Smith]

Dear All!

I want to kindly ask, I am conducting research on distance-related variables and how they affect the sale price of housing property in three cities. Hence, if the amenity is getting further apart from the property it will less likely determine the price of the sale property and eventual the influence will die out. I found this scholarly paper: Valuing Urban Wetlands: A Property Price Approach on JSTOR
which states that in my variable transformation I should "log" all variables that are distance related ie in my data I have the variable airport which is defined as "shortest distance to an airport in metres" does this mean that any variable that is based on distance has to be "logged"?

Thank you very much for your help everyone! Much appreciated.

Best wishes,

Dorf Smith

[Mike Lacy]

To duplicate the method of analysis in that article would require reading that article, which most people (like me) won't want to do. *Perhaps* there is someone here who does the kind of research you're doing and could advise based on knowledge of standard practices in your research area. However, another way to get help here would be to explain why you are uncertain: You say that the article says that you should log all distance variables, and the variable you describe is a distance, so why are you wondering whether you should use a log transformation?

[Dorf Smith]

Dear Mike,

Thank you for your response!

To clarify, yes my question is if it is standard practice?

Many thanks!

Best wishes,

Dorf Smith