Noteworthy Valuation-Related Papers from the American Real Estate Society Annual Meeting (Notes AND Issues) (Conference News‪)‬

The 26th Annual American Real Estate Society (ARES) Meeting was held in Naples, Florida, April 14-17, 2010. Over 200 papers and panels were presented by academics, PhD students, and researchers, as well as by valuation practitioners. As with past meetings, the presentations covered a vast array of real estate topics, including housing prices, real estate investment trusts (REITs), public real estate market dynamics, real estate education, and environmental issues. There were a number of topics of interest to those in the appraisal profession, ranging from case studies on various types of environmental issues, effects of financing on value, new legal issues affecting valuers, and foreclosure sales. Coming off what were possibly the most rapid and widespread real estate write-downs in modern history, it is no surprise the ARES conference focused heavily on valuation. Academia turned its research to the bows and whys of the housing bubble, the causes of the dramatic cap rate swings, and the influence of financing on the value of both commercial and residential real estate. The massive losses in the global real estate market will continue to provide ARES members plenty of fodder to write about for years to come.