Modern Portfolio Theory is a single-period model developed for the efficient securities market, in which asset prices are implicitly assumed to follow a random walk. It is widely agreed that real estate does not fit into the efficient market paradigm; however, mixed-asset portfolio analysis...

Thinly-traded assets exhibit illiquidity and do not fit in the efficient market paradigm. Direct application of classical finance theories to illiquid assets simply ignores the illiquidity risk of thinly-traded assets. Using commercial real estate as a testing ground, this paper develops a new,...

Thinly-traded private assets do not fit into the traditional finance paradigm of a liquid and well-functioning market where trading is continuous and instantaneous. Since private assets cannot be bought and sold easily, they bear liquidity risk. Classical finance theories cannot properly gauge...

Direct application of Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) to the mixed-asset portfolio often suggests that allocation to real estate should be far more than what is practically acceptable. This paper reveals that the puzzling gap is caused by inappropriate application of MPT using only short-term...

This study examines the heterogeneous appraiser behavior and its implication on the traditional appraisal smoothing theory. We show that the partial adjustment model is consistent with the traditional appraisal smoothing argument (Geltner 1989) only when all the appraisers choose the same...

Choosing the optimal holding period is an important part of real estate investment decisions, because “when to sell” affects “whether to buy.” This paper presents a theoretical model for such decision making. Our model indicates that the optimal holding period is affected by both...