Introduction to the Special Issue

Excerpt

The papers in this special issue grew out of the 2012 session of the FSU/UF Symposium on Critical Issues in Real Estate, hosted at the University of Florida.¹ The theme of the symposium was Commercial Real Estate Issues: Markets, Values and Risks. The papers that emerged added new facets to diverse spheres of research. The first three papers are related in that they all contribute to the body of work on commercial property indices. The remaining five papers span a rich variety of subjects, including the dynamics of retail property markets, the effect of information volatility on predictions by commercial property analysts, global IPO performance of REITS, the use and effect of listed prices in commercial real estate transactions, and the role of local market characteristics in commercial mortgage default patterns. Despite the range of subjects, these papers resulted in broad and lively discourse among the participants of the symposium. We trust that they will stir a lively interest for the reader as well. …