Real Estate Economics & Finance

Catalog description

This course introduces students to real estate economics and finance with a particular emphasis on income-producing properties. For economics, the course introduces the foundational idea of supply-demand equilibria and applications within the real estate space, asset, and capital markets, culminating in a discussion of real estate cycles. The course also covers principles of urban economics and market analysis. For finance, the course introduces fundamentals of investment valuation, namely the time value of money and the relationship between return and risk. It then builds upon these topics to discuss techniques used by professionals in analyzing and financing commercial real estate. Students learn the components of a real estate operating pro forma and discounted cash flow analysis, as well as common measures of performance. The course addresses the use of financing in real estate, including the roles and processes of various capital providers, basic mortgage calculations, and how leverage impacts investment returns.