News Archives

Mortgages and Housing Quality Discussed at UW Real Estate Conference

(April 27-28, 2007.)

Presenters included:

Chris Mayer, Columbia University, “Private Information and Market Making in the Secondary Mortgage Market,” with Steven Drucker, Columbia University.

Ping Wang, Washington University in St Louis, “Housing Quality, Housing Development and Public Policy,” with Shin-Kun Peng, Academia Sinica and National Taiwan University.

Gilles Duranton, University of Toronto, “Urban Growth and Transportation,” with Matt Turner, University of Toronto.

Morris Davis, University of Wisconsin–Madison, “Amenities as TFP and the Factor of Four,” with François Ortalo-Magné, University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, New York University, “Mortgage Timing,” with Ralph Koijen, Tilburg University, and Otto van Hemert, New York University.

Juan Esteban Carranza, University of Wisconsin–Madison, “An Empirical Characterization of Mortgage Default in Colombia between 1997 and 2004.”

Tomasz Piskorski, New York University, “Optimal Mortgage Design,” with Alexei Tchistyi, New York University.

François Ortalo-Magné, University of Wisconsin–Madison, “The Relative Performance of Real Estate Marketing Platforms: MLS versus FSBOMadison.com” with Igal Hendel and Aviv Nevo, Northwestern University.

“Create the Future” Campaign Establishes the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate

(February, 2007.)

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Real Estate proudly announces that nearly 600 alumni and friends have raised nearly $11 million in donations and will re-name the Center after the late professor James A. Graaskamp, a legendary figure in real estate education.  

The program is more than halfway toward its goal of raising $20 million over five years to maintain Wisconsin as the premier real estate program in the nation. Private gifts will help the Center strengthen current offerings, such as required overseas study tours to France, China and other countries, feasibility and development project analyses, and a $1 million portfolio of REIT stocks that students manage as part of the Applied Security Analysis Program.

On April 25 and 26, 2007, a special two-day ceremony to rename the Center will be held in conjunction with the Center’s board meeting at the Fluno Center and Monona Terrace in Madison.  Details will be forthcoming in the coming weeks.

The capital campaign, unveiled in December 2005, was part of a larger five-year campaign to raise $20 million for the Wisconsin Real Estate program. The initiative spurred a challenge from Bryant Wangard, BBA ‘77, MS ’79; and Mike Arneson, MS ’81, as well as other principals of TOLD Development, who gave $1.7 million to rename the Center and encouraged other alumni to follow suit. An anonymous donor contributed $1 million, followed by Chuck Heath, BBA ‘81, MS ’83, and his wife, Kathleen, who also gave $1 million. More than 600 other financial pledges have been received from donors young and old, signifying remarkably broad support for the renaming project.

“I would not be where I am today without the influence of Jim Graaskamp in my life,” said Chuck Heath. “Now is the time to formally connect his name with the UW Real Estate program forever.”  

The Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association provided an incredible foundation for the fundraising effort and was ably led by four dedicated individuals: Jim Curtis, Jim Haft, Craig Manske, and Jim Smith, all graduates of the real estate program under James Graaskamp. They were supported by many other dedicated alumni and friends throughout the country.   

Michael Knetter, UW business school dean, was pleased at the outpouring of support for the Center’s goals.  “I have been impressed with the way that real estate alumni have stepped up to take this outstanding program to even higher levels,” he said.

The Wisconsin Real Estate program consistently ranks as one of the top three real estate programs nationwide and is widely recognized for its rigorous curriculum, top students, outstanding faculty and extensive alumni network. In 2004, as part of a school-wide strategy to develop specialized MBA programs, the Center absorbed administration of the Real Estate MBA. The additional resources now available to the new James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate will allow it to compete even more effectively with dozens of new real estate programs that have recently emerged around the country.

 James Graaskamp, who taught real estate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1964 to 1988 and was program chairman from 1968 until his death in 1988, was instrumental in creating the modern real estate curriculum and elevating the discipline to a position of national prominence. Working with legions of graduate students, he promoted new thinking about feasibility analysis, development and risk management, eschewing traditional economic models in favor of instruction through practical field studies.

Through his teachings, Graaskamp instilled a concern for ethics and a comprehensive approach to improving the quality of the built environment. Today’s UW-Madison Real Estate program honors and builds on that ethic, offering a multi-disciplinary approach to real estate with a focus on development, international topics, feasibility analysis, finance and investment, valuation, law and urban land economics.

The donations will allow the Center to move forward with its goals, said Timothy Riddiough, director of the Center for Real Estate.

“We are extremely grateful to our alumni, Center for Real Estate Board of Advisors, and friends for helping us achieve this important outcome,” Riddiough said. “Our role is to act as the caretaker of Jim Graaskamp’s legacy, with the additional responsibility of fostering innovation in real estate research and education. Tradition and innovation are really what real estate at Wisconsin is all about.”

James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate Naming and Dedication Celebration

The Legacy of James A. Graaskamp

Additional Resources

For more information, contact:

Lee Gottschalk at (608) 265-2032 or lgottschalk@bus.wisc.edu

Katherine Esposito at (608) 263-3459 or kesposito@bus.wisc.edu

 

Center for Real Estate Surveys Foreign Investors

(January, 2007.)

The United States remains the preferred country for foreign investors' real estate dollars, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison survey of global real estate investors conducted on behalf of the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE).

The survey also found that for the first time since 2001, New York City has emerged as foreign investors' top U.S. city for their investment dollars.

The survey of AFIRE members was conducted by the Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business. This is the 15th year AFIRE members have been surveyed, but the first time the survey was conducted by the Wisconsin center.

"The findings reflect investors' desire to invest in U.S. real estate, despite macro uncertainties and competition from U.S. institutional investors," said UW-Madison Real Estate Professor François Ortalo-Magné, who directed the survey. "Consequently, foreign investors are showing a greater willingness to consider diversification strategies into secondary markets outside of the core property types, and with creative financing and ownership structures."

The survey found that global real estate investors say their U.S. real estate investment strategies for 2007 and beyond will include properties traditionally considered to have higher risk. Thirty percent of respondents said they would explore new property types as part of their U.S. investment strategy, including infrastructure, resorts, senior housing, storage, student housing, research and science projects, and the acquisition of real estate companies.

Those surveyed said new measures to place new capital in the U.S. market over the next five years will draw on off-market transactions, the development of joint ventures and the execution of a broader focus and geographic diversification.

Mark Preston, AFIRE's newly elected chairman, said: "The U.S. still remains the strongest and safest conduit for cross-border real estate dollars, by a substantial margin of 63 percent. But it is clear that our members are taking advantage of some of the opportunities inherent in emerging markets."

Respondents to the survey said that "value-added" real estate is expected to comprise 25 percent of their portfolio in 2007, up six percentage points from 2006. The survey reflects the buying preferences of members of the association, who collectively own $601 billion of real estate globally, including $184 billion in the United States.

While the United States remains the preferred global country for foreign investors' real estate dollars, only 23 percent of respondents say it has the best potential for capital appreciation, down from 44.4 percent in 2005 and 53.8 percent in 2004. India emerged as the country having the second highest potential for real estate capital appreciation. The United States has always held the top spot, but this is the narrowest margin (5 percent) between first and second place in the survey's history. With 15 percent of survey respondents' votes, real estate in China continues to rank third.

The Center for Real Estate at the UW-Madison School of Business has been a leading player in real estate education, research and outreach for more than 30 years.

 

"Beyond the Bubble: Real Estate faculty, faculty, board members and alumni featured in the Business School's Update magazine.

(December, 2006.)

Read it here.

Housing prices have lagged in recent months after years of often-spectacular increases. Our panel of experts discusses what that means to the real estate industry and to homeowners and sellers.

Michael Conaghan, MS ’91, is a vice president for Marshall BankFirst’s Commercial Real Estate Division. Based in Madison, he has more than 21 years of experience in commercial real estate financing.

Assistant Professor Morris Davis is a former economist with the Federal Reserve Board, where he analyzed housing markets and developed a price index for residential land. He has gained recent national attention for his study comparing construction cost of housing structures and residential land values in 46 large metropolitan areas in the United States. It, and other real estate working papers, are posted at www.bus.wisc.edu/wcre/paper.

Marc Ley, BBA ’85, MS 87, is senior vice president and chief financial officer of The Irvine Company in Irvine, Calif. The privately held company is best known for sustainable residential and business communities it has planned and developed on The Irvine Ranch in Orange County, Calif.

William Malkasian has been president of Wisconsin REALTORS Association, a statewide organization with more than 16,000 members, for over 25 years. In 2003, he was recognized by REALTOR Magazine as one of the 25 most influential people in the real estate community in America.

Professor Stephen Malpezzi is the Lorin and Marjorie Tiefenthaler Distinguished Chair in Real Estate and he chairs the Department of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics. He is president of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association and has earned a national reputation for his research in the economics of regulation and housing and urban economics,

Associate Professor François Ortalo-Magné is the Robert E. Wangard Chair in Real Estate. He has conducted research on housing market fluctuations and the process whereby people sell their homes. His best-known research explains how housing prices and transactions fluctuate as economic forces affect the timing of households’ move up and down the ladder.