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Wharton News
Chicago Tribune and Houston Chronicle Quote Chris MayerAn article appearing in the July 8th edition of the Chicago Tribune and the Houston Chronicle quoted Wharton real estate professor, Chris Mayer. The article examined the increasing practice of parents giving monetary gifts to their children for home purchases. Mortgage lenders say that a good part of the financial ammunition of the long-running real estate boom is being provided by an older generation flush with cash. Professor Mayer said that his research indicates that roughly a quarter of first-time buyers get help from relatives. The difference now is that the big run-up in real estate prices requires more help than ever.
Homebuilders’ Stocks Go Through the RoofThis year, homebuilder stocks have gone up even as the overall stock market declined on news of accounting scandals and fears of a terror attack and a weak economic recovery. Wharton real estate professor Susan Wachter commented in the Philadelphia Inquirer that higher prices for homes have been maintained, in part, because of community opposition to new development in metropolitan areas, particularly in Northeast Philadelphia. In the July 9th article, Wachter noted that governors in 37 states have expressed interest in “smart growth” or tighter controls on development. The regulatory restraints “are having some bite and a national impact for the first time.” Wachter was also quoted in an article on investing in real estate in BusinessWeek Online (8/2/02).
Buying a Second Home? - Choose Carefully!The Wall Street Journal (7/31/02) cited Professor Chris Mayer in an article about investing in real estate in this time of uncertainty. "If you are going to invest in vacation homes, you want to invest where the supply is relatively fixed," says Mayer. "You don’t want to invest in an area where it’s easy to put up cookie-cutter condominiums."
The Future of Tall Buildings and the World Trade Center SiteMartin Meyerson Professor of Urbanism and Real Estate, Witold Rybczynski, joined New Yorker architect critic Paul Goldberger in a September 5 panel discussion at Pace University on the future of the World Trade Center site. An article by Rybczynski entitled "What We Learn About Tall Buildings from the World Trade Center Collapse" is featured in the October issue of Discover magazine.
High-end Home Sales at a Standstill in AtlantaThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently reported that high-priced real estate is not selling. Wharton real estate professor, Chris Mayer, interviewed for the article, said that the economic climate should determine the price of houses. "Sellers would often be better off pricing more aggressively, raising prices in booms, but lowering their asking prices in busts. Neither buyers nor sellers want to lose money no matter what they pay for a house. That’s why sellers are reluctant to reduce their prices in a stagnant market. That is also why real estate sales decline by 50 percent or more, when the economy is in decline. This aversion to loss results from the psychological attachment to a personal investment. And what investment could be more personal than one’s home."
Recent Articles by Professor Anita SummersAn article by Anita Summers, emeritus professor of public policy, management, real estate and education entitled "Accountability Gains: Expert Measures" appeared in the Summer 2002 edition of EDUCATION NEXT, published by Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Professor Summers also reviewed the book "Philadelphia: A New Urban Direction," by Philadelphia Office of City Controller’s Office for the JOURNAL OF REGIONAL SCIENCE, Feb. 2002.
Professor Peter Linneman, Guest Speaker in Europe and AmericaWharton real estate professor Peter Linneman has a busy Fall schedule. He will be a panel moderator at the National Association of Realtors, Realtors Commercial Alliance Advisory Board, in Chicago in mid-October. In November, Professor Linneman heads for Marbella, Spain, for a Morgan Stanley conference on Global Real Estate Private Equity. Later in November, Linneman will be in New York to speak on Real Estate Markets and Investment Activities for the World Presidents Organization and in December he will give a talk on the State of the Economy and Real Estate Capital Markets for the ULI - McCoy Symposium.
Atlantic Station – A Complex Development Project in AtlantaA $2 billion Atlantic Station project in Midtown Atlanta was the subject of an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (9/16/02) quoting Zell/Lurie associate director, Asuka Nakahara. "All real estate deals have a core of complexity to them," said Nakahara. "In this case, the size of the development, its urban location, brown field redevelopment and the use of public money adds additional complexity. When you’re doing something really large in an urban area, that in and of itself is risky relative to doing a suburban office or shopping center. What it will all boil down to is whether this is a market-based product where businesses will want to locate."
Wharton Professor Advises on Housing Policy in Brazil and IndonesiaDirector of the Zell/Lurie Program in International Housing Finance, Marja Hoek-Smit, was invited by the Government of Brazil to conduct a Workshop on the core principles of Housing Policy formulation. The workshop "Transforming Brazil’s Housing Sector: Policies, Regulations, Subsidies and Markets" was funded jointly by the World Bank and Caixa Economic Federal, Brazil’s government housing bank and took place on August 18 and 19 in Brasilia, Brazil. The two-day workshop for approximately 100 senior housing professionals from the public and the private sector provided the introduction to several days of intensive discussions on the draft of a new housing policy. Hoek-Smit is an active participant in ongoing housing policy discussions in Brazil, as part of a World Bank expert team.Hoek-Smit then traveled to on to Indonesia to present the comprehensive housing policy proposals produced by a team of Indonesian and international experts during a nine-month long study, sponsored by the Government of Indonesia. During the week of August 26, 2002, a series of workshops were held, with different public, private and NGO stakeholders to explain the fundamental principles and implementing strategies of the proposed policy and to reach a consensus on the next steps to be taken.
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