Disaggregation of Local Apartment Markets by Unit Type

Recent market segmentation research has begun to delve into the issue of whether traditional property-type categories are sufficiently homogeneous to be modeled as aggregate real estate markets. This article extends the research on rental-property market segmentation by investigating the existence of apartment submarkets determined by unit type. The study finds that one-bedroom, one-bath units; two-bedroom, one-bath units; and two-bedroom, two-bath units function as distinct submarkets differentiated by property features, neighborhood location, and temporal changes in market rent.     

WHAT EMPLOYERS LOOK FOR IN HIRING INSURANCE PROFESSIONALS

Abstract: The authors surveyed managers and personnel directors who make hiring decisions for risk management and insurance companies to determine what traits they seek in college students.     

Manufacturing versus Distribution: Implicit Pricing of Real Property Characteristics by Submarket

This article develops and tests the idea that the industrial real estate market is an aggregate market consisting of at least two submarkets—manufacturing and distribution. While there is no observable difference in implicit pricing of most industrial property characteristics across these two submarkets, some property-characteristic implicit prices do differ. Therefore, manufacturing and distribution submarket property-pricing functions are best estimated in aggregate, while making allowances for variability of coefficients on some property characteristics. For this sample of 331 industrial property sales from the southeastern region of the United States, the two submarkets vary with regard to implicit pricing of building volume, below-average building condition, site area, and dock-high doors.     

Neighborhood Center Image and Rents

The impact of neighborhood-center image on rental rates is empirically modeled and tested. The neighborhood-center anchor does not substantially affect in-line, nonanchor rental rates and is more a proxy for a neighborhood center's trade-area economic base than an actual determinant of neighborhood-center rental rates. Image-related facilities specific variables do affect rental rates. Concurrently, relative center size does impact rental rates, providing marginal support for the use of gravity models at the property subtype level. More modeling of retail rents and sales activity is warranted.     

A Longitudinal Examination of the Appraisal Smoothing Hypothesis

Appraisal smoothing, the reduced variability of real estate return series, has been attributed to appraisers being influenced by their own previous value estimates. This hypothesis is tested experimentally. Expert apppraisers from Atlanta were asked to value a hypothetical apartment project in Phoenix. Eight months later, these experts were asked to update their original appraisals given certain market and property changes. At this time, an independent group of Atlanta experts was asked to appraise the property based on the updated conditions. Results support the hypothesis of insufficient adjustment from previous value judgments.