When working with public data, there are often minor issues that may have affected our outputs. One primary limitation is our study period. With health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects on industries such as short-term rental housing are time-delayed. Ideally, we would continue to study listings changes for several months beyond April 2020, especially when more listings are likely to be taken down as tourism continues to struggle.

Regarding data for COVID-19 cases, the data was aggregated over the Vancouver Coastal Health Region and there were no public records that we could access that were more detailed. We performed our analysis on the assumption that cases were spread evenly in our study area, when a more accurate and precise analysis would result from more detailed information. 

Related to spatial limitations, the decision to use census tracts also had minor drawbacks. The main limitation here was quite similar to the coronavirus data, which is a false generalization of spatial distribution. Data for each CT represents the entire region when in reality, populations can sometimes be concentrated into small areas. A prominent example would be Stanley Park, where most of the area is uninhabited, and all the data comes from the households that sit right on the edges of the park and city.

Population data in this study also met some obstacles. Data for Downtown East-side was unavailable with the reason being unknown. Additionally, our population data was updated on an annual basis, so monthly changes were not presented. As a result, we worked based on the assumption that neighborhood population remained constant over the study period. The impact of this limitation is seen to be relatively minor as the likeliness of drastic population change from month to month is unlikely.

It is important to note that this study is exploratory, with our focus being on finding general patterns of change. The limitations listed do not interfere with our results in a meaningful way.