COURSE NUMBER: MBA283.1

This course is dual-listed with the Evening & Weekend MBA Program.

COURSE TITLE: Real Estate Finance and Securitization

UNITS OF CREDIT: 3 units

INSTRUCTOR: Amir Kermani

E-MAIL ADDRESS: amir@haas.berkeley.edu

CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION:  bCourses

PREREQUISITE(S): MBA203, MBA280

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:
This is an applied finance and economics course that focuses on the structure and operation of the U.S. mortgage and asset-backed securities market. The course begins with an overview of the fundamentals of bond and mortgage contracts and a review of basic analysis tools such as duration and convexity. The course then considers the fundamentals of residential and commercial real estate contracting and analyzes methods to design mortgages to manage risk. These foundation concepts are further evaluated in detail in a series of cases that will be discussed in class.  The course will then review recent advances in finance to price mortgage and contracts with embedded options such as prepayment, default, extension and cancellation. The final part of the course considers the multi-trillion dollar mortgage and asset-backed bond markets. We will also discuss the fundamentals of securitization, TBA market, as well as the relation between monetary policy and the mortgage market. The course will offer all students an opportunity to develop their business skills through a final project presentation.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
Amir Kermani is an Assistant Professor at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. Professor Kermani received his PhD in Economics from MIT. His current research focuses on the linkages between monetary policy, financial institutions, mortgage market and the macroecnomy. securitization market and political economy. His research on political connections of financial institutions and on monetary policy pass-through has been covered in WSJ, Slate and VoxEU.