Degrees and Programs (return)

Real Estate Course Descriptions

 

Real Estate Process: URBDP 552

This course is designed to introduce students to the overall real estate process including concept generation, market research, design, construction, finance and transactions. The course is structured as a survey course, providing a holistic view of the real estate process with the ultimate goal of helping students understand how to generate optimal real estate solutions for various users that are economically viable, sustainable and environmentally responsible.

Real Estate Appraisal URBDP 553

This course provides students with an understanding of valuation theory and the mechanics underlying real estate appraisal practices. This class explores the unique nature of the market within which property interests are created, allocated or transferred, with emphasis on real estate transactions. This class also covers the valuation impacts of various external factors including macroeconomic conditions, capital flows, fiscal and monetary policy, global forces, and structural shifts affecting real estate supply and demand.

Real Estate Finance URBDP 554

This course provides students with an introduction to real estate finance and institutional analysis. The course is designed to help students quantify the financial implications of various real estate decisions. This material covers such topics as basic time value of money, financial leverage, discounted cash flow analysis of individual properties, and advanced as the management of institutional portfolios and implications and implementation of sustainable development programs and materials.

Real Estate Development URBDP 555

The real estate development process is one of the critical components of the real estate industry that addresses the actual production of new product, as well as the renovation and rehabilitation of existing product. In many respects, development is a generalist activity that places the developer in the role of the project coordinator or driver who must marshal the appropriate resources –spatial, physical, human and capital—to produce real estate.

Real Estate Investments URBDP 556

This course is an advanced level course that approaches financial decisions through the eyes of an investor, either individual or institutional. In addition to basic financial models, the course explores forms of ownership, tax implications, investment strategies, investment management, and portfolio management. The discussion covers both private and public forms of investment, along with debt and equity positions. This course introduces students to real estate investments and the risk/reward trade-offs associated with various deal structures and relationships with financial institutions.

Real Estate Market Analysis URBDP 558

This course is designed to prepare students to conduct and interpret market studies to cover a range of real estate decisions including both interurban and interurban decision-making. The course exposes students to a variety of market analysis tools and techniques including demographic, economic, and geospatial analysis that are appropriate for supporting various real estate decisions. This is a required real estate course that provides students with exposure to spatial and market analytical techniques.

Real Estate Capital Markets

This course will expose students to these changes and provide them with the strategic and technical skills to be able to understand capital flows and emerging capital market trends that affect the industry. Special attention will be paid to securitized real estate, including Real Estate Investment Trusts, and Commercial Mortgage-backed Securities. In addition, students will study global capital flows, including the dramatic growth in domestic investors allocating funds off-shore, and foreign investment in domestic real estate assets.

Real Estate Feasibility Analysis

This advanced course is designed to help students develop creative approaches to problem-solving that focus on identifying optimal real estate solutions that reflect sensitivity to the perspectives of space users, space producers, and market facilitators. The course covers the three basic types of real estate decisions students are likely to encounter in their professional practices including: a site in search of a use; a use in search of a site; and an investor in search of an opportunity.

Real Estate Studio

This course is a capstone course that incorporates a real-world real estate development opportunity that is analyzed in a competitive market context. The studio offers students the opportunity to work in interdisciplinary teams to generate solutions to “real-world” problems. In addition to drawing on their real estate coursework, students are also encouraged to develop working relationships with industry mentors from specializations within real estate and related disciplines including development, urban design, architecture, construction, appraisal, and brokerage and investment management.

Real Estate Law and Ethics

Real estate professionals and market participants encounter a number of legal issues associated with the development, production, marketing, operation and transfer of real estate interests. These legal issues operate at the macro level (e.g., growth management, real estate taxation) as well as at the micro level (e.g., entitlements, contracts, leases, financing, ownership, and transactions). In addition to covering the legal parameters associated with real estate practices, the course exposes students to the ethical/social context within which real estate decisions are made. This broad coverage is designed to sensitize students to the ethical and legal/political/social implications surrounding real estate.

Real Estate Portfolio Management

This course provides students with an exposure to modern portfolio theory and other theoretical and applied tools that can be used to establish real estate allocations in a mixed-asset context, manage real estate portfolios in terms of major diversification categories of property type and location, and manage financial structures and ownership positions that span the pubic/private, debt/equity positions. This course will expose students to a range of portfolio techniques and financial analysis, and will explore their limitations in terms of underlying assumptions that the real estate market often violates.

Real Estate Asset Management

Real estate is a space-time, money time asset that is durable and has an enduring quality. Thus, the development of an asset is only a part of the overall life cycle. To be successful, real estate must be managed in a proactive manner that responds to changing tenant needs and competitive market conditions. This course will allow students to explore the spatial requirements of these major user types, approaching them from a behavioral perspective that is empathetic to their needs and responsive to emerging trends and market forces.

Real Estate Capstone Seminar

This course will provide an outlet that will allow students to draw on the core and elective courses to address a number of emerging trends and contemporary issues that real estate professionals will encounter. This course is designed to provide an opportunity to take an in-depth look at such phenomena and develop appropriate response programs that reflect the integration of their studies across campus. Non-Real Estate Electives MSRE Students will take a total of six (6) courses from a list of approved non-real estate electives. These elective may be modified to satisfy a particular career path to provide a more customized educational experience. Table 4 presents a list of typical electives.