Seattle may have the highest rents statewide, but communities such as Walla Walla and Spokane have seen the most drastic losses in affordability. | Crosscut
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Friday in Space – Gregg Colburn Chat with longtime friend, astronaut Josh Cassada
Join us live on February 10 as Gregg Colburn, assistant professor of real estate and longtime friend of NASA astronaut Josh Cassada, will moderate a discussion with astronaut Cassada, currently stationed on the ISS.
America’s Homelessness Crisis is Getting Worse
Assistant professor of real estate Gregg Colburn discusses the relationship between housing market conditions and rates of homelessness across the country. | NYT
Cause of homelessness? It’s not drugs or mental illness, researchers say
As more cities search for explanations and solutions to homelessness, leaders look to data. Gregg Colburn, assistant professor of real estate, is quoted. | Los Angeles Times
Simon Stevenson awarded 2018 Nick Tyrrell Research Prize
Simon Stevenson, the Chair of the Runstad Department of Real Estate and the John and Rosalind Jacobi Family Professor of Real Estate, has been awarded the 2018 Nick Tyrrell Research Prize for innovative applied research in real estate investment. The award is for the paper “Optimal Composition of Hybrid/Blended Real Estate Portfolios”, which was co-authored with former colleagues Frank Ametefe and Steven Devaney of the Henley Business School, University of Reading.
The prize is awarded annually by three of Europe’s leading real estate industry associations; the European Association for Investors in Non-listed Real Estate Vehicles (INREV), the Investment Property Forum (IPF) and the Society of Property Researchers (SPR). The prize is in memory of Nick Tyrrell, the former Head of Research & Strategy and a Managing Director in J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s European Real Estate Division, who passed away in August 2010. His research work was characterized by a combination of academic rigor and practical relevance.
The research considers the optimal mix of liquid, publicly traded assets that may be added to a real estate portfolio to provide enhanced liquidity while at the same time minimizing the impact on portfolio return. The performance and liquidity of real estate funds has become an issue of concern among investors, especially as the ability of investors to exit funds has often been compromised in periods following market shocks. Increasingly, institutional investors, such as UK defined contribution pension funds, are requiring increased liquidity from real estate funds, which they use to gain exposure to real estate as an asset class.
The research indicates that applying formal portfolio optimization techniques leads not only to benefits with respect to liquidity but also to an improvement in the ability of blended real estate products to track the underlying benchmark index. The authors will be presenting their findings at a special industry seminar in London in the spring of 2019, date to be confirmed. A similar event will be held in Seattle. A copy of the Prize-winning paper is available here:
Urban Affairs Association Annual Conference in Toronto
Earlier this month, faculty members Gregg Colburn and Rebecca Walter presented at the Urban Affairs Association Annual Conference in Toronto. Below is an abstract of Gregg’s session on housing subsidies.
Session Title: Housing Subsidies: Housing Choice and Quality
Paper Title: Housing Market Conditions and the Housing Choice Voucher Program
Since the 1970s, housing vouchers have become the primary mode of federal housing support for low-income households in the U.S. The voucher program was designed to provide recipients with the choice and flexibility needed to secure higher quality housing in neighborhoods with lower levels of segregation and poverty. Decades of analysis suggest that the housing outcomes of program beneficiaries have failed to produce the favorable outcomes envisioned by policymakers. To add to our understanding of the outcomes of this important federal program, this paper seeks to underscore the importance of context-dependent policy analysis. In particular, this study analyzes the impact of housing market conditions on the outcomes achieved by voucher recipients. Using neighborhood and housing outcome data from the American Housing Survey, and rental market vacancy data from the U.S. Census, I demonstrate the important role that market conditions play in program outcomes. The results from this study suggest that voucher recipients are successful at improving housing unit quality outcomes regardless of market conditions, but the ability to move to a better neighborhood is a function of market conditions. While voucher holders find improved housing and better neighborhoods in cities with higher vacancy rates, expensive coastal cities with low vacancy rates present a profound challenge for housing authorities and voucher recipients as they seek to administer and use vouchers in tight market conditions.
Lead with your heart
Runstad Center faculty member Deborah Scaramastra talks about the importance of using your heart when making job choices, read her Linkedin post.
Financial and macro-economic factors in global real estate markets
The last three decades have seen increased integration across global stock markets. New research from the Runstad Center of Real Estate Studies at the University of Washington has examined what factors drive international integration across public real estate markets. The research has implications for fund managers as increased integration can have a negative impact upon the diversification opportunities available across global real estate markets. The findings observe that whilst public real estate markets have become more inter-connected, both the level and increase in integration is less than that observed in stock markets generally.
The research, authored by Simon Stevenson, John and Rosalind Jacobi Family Professor of Real Estate and Director of the Runstad Center, also considers how financial and macro-economic factors impact the extent of co-movement across markets. The results highlight that those countries with heightened financial and trade openness and display monetary independence see increased integration. The stability of respective the foreign exchange rate also has a significant impact.
Financial market factors, both specific to public real estate as well as the broader stock market, are also important. The paper finds that increased integration is observed in countries with larger stock markets, which are themselves more integrated with the global market, whilst the size of the public real estate market also plays an role. Specifically, public real estate markets that constitute a larger proportion of the overall domestic stock market, also tend to display increased integration. Factors such as volatility and trading volume in public real estate stocks are also important elements.
The paper, “Macroeconomic and Financial Determinants of Co-Movement across Global Real Estate Security Markets” is published in the latest issue of the Journal of Real Estate Research, the primary publication of the American Real Estate Society.
Faculty Search
The University of Washington’s Department of Urban Design and Planning and the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies are seeking applicants for two Assistant Professor positions and one Associate Professor position for the MS in Real Estate.
The appointments will be on a 9-month (100% FTE) basis with salary commensurate with qualifications and experience. Qualified candidates will hold a doctoral degree or foreign equivalent in a related field with expertise in at least one of the following areas; housing, real estate development, real estate finance and investment or corporate real estate and possess a record that demonstrates promise as a researcher and scholar.
Candidates for the Assistant Professor positions should be prepared to teach real estate courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Expertise in affordable housing and housing policy would be viewed favorably for the Associate Professor position. Follow the links below for full descriptions as well as application instructions.
Investing and creating communities to love
Pike Oliver continues his impressions from this year’s ULI Fall Meeting with a summary of Sarah Filley’s session.
One of the more interesting presenters at the Urban Land Institute 2016 Fall Meeting in Dallas was from Oakland, California. Sarah Filley cofounded Popuphood, which she said, “invests in entrepreneurs with hearts of gold to create communities we love.”
Ms. Filley explained “Cities like Oakland are the most vulnerable to recession, where it hurts the most and lasts the longest,” she said. In 2011 Oakland’s downtown had 35 percent retail vacancy. But there was an active monthly arts festival drawing 25,000 people on a single day. The idea of Popuphood was to connect artists with vacant retail space.
Ms. Filley explained “Cities like Oakland are the most vulnerable to recession, where it hurts the most and lasts the longest,” she said. In 2011 Oakland’s downtown had 35 percent retail vacancy. But there was an active monthly arts festival drawing 25,000 people on a single day. The idea of Popuphood was to connect artists with vacant retail space.
Filley’s initiative aggregated very small businesses and concentrated them on a single block, using redevelopment funds to provide them with six months of free rent. The approach of curating local independent retail tenants to catalyze local economic development began to transform the downtown, block by block.Popuphood continues to offer three-month to five-year leases to micro entrepreneurs, helping activate and reposition downtown properties. As a result, the value of properties housing these small retailers and pop-ups has doubled over the last five years. “These buildings have gone from vacant to vibrant,” Filley said. Popuphood has proved that micro entrepreneurs can have major economic impacts.
To watch a video of Sarah’s presentation click here