Real Estate Finance and Investments (Paperback)

The Fourteenth Edition of Real Estate Finance and Investments prepares students to understand the risks and rewards associated with investing in and financing both residential and commercial real estate. Concepts and techniques included in the chapters and problem sets are used in many careers related to real estate. The material in this edition is also relevant to individuals who want to better understand real estate for their own personal investment and financing decisions.

The Fourteenth Edition is designed to help students learn how to evaluate the risk and return associated with the various ways of investing and lending. Upcoming students who are interested in this field can use this book as a guide to perform the right kind of analysis to make informed real estate finance and investment decisions.

Salient Features
* Coverage of current topics: Due to the recent turmoil in financial markets, this edition adds further emphasis to the importance of proper underwriting of mortgage loans, whether they are subprime or not and whether they are for residential or commercial properties.
* Updated concept boxes: New concept boxes were added in select chapters to provide information about recent trends in mortgage-backed securities and how the government has worked to add liquidity to mortgage markets, in addition to taking over the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.
* Chapter 11: Investment Analysis and Taxation of Income Properties: A new section on market analysis has been added to provide readers with a better understanding of how data on the supply and demand for real estate can be used to project occupancy and rental growth.
* Chapter 14: Disposition and Renovation of Income Properties: A new section on installment sales and tax-free exchanges has been added to emphasize ways to defer capital gain taxes when selling investment properties. This includes a discussion on how to evaluate whether these tax deferral strategies are better than a regular sale.
* Chapter 14: Disposition and Renovation of Income Properties: A new section on installment sales and tax-free exchanges has been added to emphasize ways to defer capital gain taxes when selling investment properties. This includes a discussion on how to evaluate whether these tax deferral strategies are better than a regular sale.
* Discussion on various ownership structures: Discussion has been added that outlines the various ownership structures that can be used for ownership of investment property along with the advantages and disadvantages of each.
* Chapter 21: Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs): This chapter has been expanded to reflect the current economic landscape and also to include discussion on how to value a REIT.
* Integration of financial calculators and Excel into the solutions of problems: The way the solutions are presented has been simplified by using new notation introduced into this edition.
* Extensive use of Excel spreadsheets: Extensive use of Excel spreadsheets helps students perform analysis and solve problems. Real Estate Finance and Investments comes with access to Excel templates tied closely to both the exhibits and to many of the end of chapter problems. Excel exhibits and end of chapter questions tied to these templates are marked in the text with a distinctive icon.
* ARGUS Valuation DCF: The preface of the text contains instructions on how professors and their students can obtain access to the educational version of ARGUS Valuation DCF. ARGUS is a software program that allows for complicated lease analysis using up to three leases. The end-of-chapter problems for various chapters pertaining to leases have been replicated along with data files to be ARGUS compatible, providing the opportunity for students to work within this system to solve these problems.
* Internet integration: The book offers substantial Internet integration, with the inclusion of Internet exercises and many URLs that help students find and use the vast amount of information available on the web.
* Student-friendly pedagogical features: This edition continues to include many student-friendly pedagogical features, one such being boxes with calculator solutions. Traditional table solutions are also shown in the early chapters to aid in the understanding of the time-value of money.
* Relevance to the recent economic crisis: The text emphasizes the importance of understanding the underlying economic factors that affect the value of properties. This is important because the factors that affect the supply and demand for different property types are very dynamic and ultimately affect the risk and value of residential and commercial properties.
* Strong and thorough coverage of corporate real estate: This edition continues to present strong and thorough coverage of corporate real estate, including lease versus own analysis, sale and leaseback decisions, and the role of real estate in corporate restructuring.
* Short readings and illustrations: To better relate concepts and techniques presented in the real world, many short readings and illustrations are based on current events in real estate finance and investments.