This paper first identifies the characteristics of publicly-traded REITs associated with an increased probability of becoming the target of an announced merger or acquisition bid. Second, conditional on being a target, we determine which target characteristics influence the probability of the...

Capital investment tax provisions have been changed numerous times in the last decade, with depreciation tax lives shortened in 1981 and lengthened ever since and capital gains taxation reduced in 1978 and 1981 and now increased. The first part of this paper analyzes these changes and attributes...

For well-diversified investors in depreciable real estate, the trading decision may be made with the sole objective of maximizing the property's depreciation tax shelter net of all capital gain taxes and transaction costs.This paper develops a dynamic programming model in which the optimal...

This paper investigates the role of fundamentals and investor sentiment in commercial real estate valuation. In real estate markets, heterogeneous properties trade in illiquid, highly segmented and informationally inefficient local markets. Moreover, the inability to short sell private real...

We explore the determinants and value implications of publicly traded real estate companies converting to real estate investment trusts (REITs), which we term REITing, and publicly-traded REITs giving up their REIT status, termed de-REITing. Non-REIT real estate firms that pay relatively high...

This is the first paper to examine the transmission of an asset market shock to the capital markets during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a novel measure of the exposure of commercial real estate portfolios (CRE) to the growth in COVID-19 (GeoCOVID), we find a one-standard-deviation increase in...

This paper examines U.S. REIT leverage decisions and their effects on risk and return. We find that REITs are highly levered relative to industrial firms, with an average market leverage of 46 percent over our 1990-2012 sample period. Using partial adjustment models, we further find that the...

This paper investigates the relationship between capital flows, turnover and returns for the UK private real estate market. We examine a number of possible implication of capital flows and turnover on capital returns testing for evidence of a price pressure effect, 'return chasing' behaviour and...

The last decade's boom and bust in U.S. commercial real estate (CRE) prices was at least as large as that in the housing market and contributed significantly to bank failures. Nevertheless, the role of CRE in the Great Recession has received little attention. This study estimates cohesive models...

Option-based models of mortgage default posit that the central measure of default risk is the loan-to-value (LVT) ratio. We argue, however, that an unrecognized problem with extending the basic option model to exisiting multifamily and commercial mortgages is that key variables in the option...