Labs and data platforms
Open tools for evidence-centered research and teaching.
I develop public, browser-based projects that connect academic research, classroom learning, and practical analysis. The projects emphasize transparent calculations, documented data sources, reproducible methods, and interfaces that make evidence easier to explore and discuss.
Featured platform
Housing Market Lab
An open, reproducible platform for examining home values, rents, affordability relationships, building permits, inventory, market speed, and listing and sales dynamics. It combines detailed coverage of Southern California communities and ZIP codes with comparisons across major U.S. metropolitan areas.
The platform supports three related uses: helping students interpret local housing conditions, providing researchers with transparent exploratory evidence, and giving policymakers and practitioners ready-to-use measures with documented provenance.
Real estate teaching tools
These interactive tools translate concepts from FIN 351: Real Estate Principles and FIN 355: Real Estate Investment Analysis into small, inspectable models. They are designed for classroom demonstration and independent exploration rather than automated investment advice.
FIN 351 Real Estate Principles Browse collection FIN 355 Real Estate Investment Analysis Browse collection
Site Feasibility Sandbox
Draw and edit a parcel and building footprints, then connect site geometry, setbacks, lot coverage, stories, and FAR to live development-capacity measures and binding constraints.
Linguistics Teaching Labs
Examine language through evidence and transparent models
Co-developed with Wei Lai, Linguistics Teaching Labs brings together the Nature of Language Lab and the Computational Linguistics Lab. The browser-based activities help introductory students test linguistic claims, work with language data, and inspect how small computational models produce their results.
People and principles
Creator and maintainer
Desen Lin
I am an Associate Professor of Finance at California State University, Fullerton. My research and teaching focus on housing markets, real estate finance, urban economics, and applied market analysis. I develop these projects to make data and analytical reasoning easier to inspect, teach, and reuse.
Project principles
Designed for durable public use
- Transparent: calculations, definitions, and source attribution remain visible.
- Reproducible: documented workflows support verification and adaptation.
- Accessible: projects run in a web browser without a paid account or specialized software.
- Maintainable: lightweight architecture and validated releases support long-term stewardship.
The real estate projects are developed and maintained by Desen Lin. Linguistics Teaching Labs is a collaborative instructional project created and maintained by Wei Lai and Desen Lin, with project-specific attribution provided on the corresponding sites and repositories.
Citation and reuse
Each project provides its own source documentation, licensing terms, and recommended citation. Please cite the specific lab, tool collection, or software release that you use. Corrections, accessibility improvements, and constructive reuse are welcome through the corresponding public repository.
Source and licensing Housing Market Lab FIN 351 tools FIN 355 tools Site Feasibility Sandbox Linguistics Teaching Labs
These are independent academic projects intended for instructional, research, and informational use. They do not provide financial, investment, legal, or appraisal advice. The views expressed are those of the project authors and do not necessarily represent California State University, Fullerton or the California State University system.