This description is based on a previous semester’s version of the course. We will update it when we receive a new one from the current instructor.

COURSE NUMBER: MBA280.1

COURSE TITLE: Real Estate Investment and Market Analysis

UNITS OF CREDIT: 3 Units

INSTRUCTOR: Nancy Wallace

EMAIL: wallace@haas.berkeley.edu

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30 – 11:00 AM

CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION (HTTP URL): http://bspace.berkeley.edu

PREREQUISITE(S): None

CLASS FORMAT: Class meetings will consist mostly of lectures, but may also feature discussions of ongoing projects by players in real estate development

and associated industries.  Problem sets will be assigned to reinforce analytical skills.  We will discuss in some detail at least one real estate

investment case per week.  The final project involves identifying a site for redevelopment, determining ``highest and best use'' and evaluating the

profitability of redevelopment.  There will be weekly review sessions with a GSI.

REQUIRED READINGS: Brueggeman and Fisher "Real Estate Investment Finance and Investments," a reader consisting of articles concerning current trends in

the development and financing of real estate, and lecture notes on key financial and economic issues covered throughout the course.

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: 60% Final project, 30% exams, 10% class participation.

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES: The goal of this course is to give students a deep and intuitive understanding of real estate markets.  The course

covers important financial, macroeconomic, and microeconomic issues in real estate acquisition, development and management.  We begin by relating real estate pro forma investment analysis to the familiar concept of profit maximization. We then describe each element of the real estate development and financing processes and relate the key economic issues to pro forma profitability analysis.  We will also highlight developments in the emerging areas of “green”' building, “subprime” lending, reverse mortgages, and instruments hedging real estate risk. 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:

Nancy Wallace is a Full Professor of Real Estate at the Haas School of Business, the University of California, Berkeley. She is Chair of the Real Estate Group and is Co-Chair of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics. She teaches asset-backed securitization, real estate investment analysis, real estate strategy, and real estate finance at Haas. Her research focus includes models of residential house price dynamics, mortgage contract design and pricing, mortgage backed security pricing and hedging, lease contract design and pricing, and executive compensation. She serves as a visiting scholar at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank and the Universite de Cergy Pointoise, Centre de Recherche THEMA (Theorie Economique, Modalisation, et Applications). Professor Wallace is the President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association and is a member of its Board of Directors. She is also a member of the editorial boards of Journal of Computational Finance and Real Estate Economics.