A Fast and Furious Start

It hasn’t even been a month yet? The atmosphere here has been electric during MBA Orientation Week and the start of classes – not to mention the first Badger football games! Like the other 12 incoming Real Estate MBA students, I began refining my resume and elevator pitch right off the bat for WREAA’s “The Economic Tightrope” Biennial Conference held in Madison on September 13^th and 14^th.  During the conference, we were able to connect with many real estate alumni from around the country, and listen to panel discussions ranging from “Cap Rate Arbitrage versus Income Growth” to “The Multifamily Land Grab.” This was certainly a tremendous opportunity to start out the school year. Additionally, we have already hosted several representatives from several companies, like Prudential and KTR Capital Partners, who presented pitches and are actively recruiting.

Alumni Network

The outstanding and supportive alumni network is one reason that I felt compelled to enroll at Wisconsin. Within the first week, our real estate class was visited by local alumni working in the industry who spoke candidly about their experiences and provided hints and suggestions for future job opportunities. Building on this spirit, each real estate MBA has been paired with an Alumni Mentor. I can speak from my own personal experience in conjunction with that of my fellow classmates in saying that our Mentors have provided us with early benefits in focusing our job searches.

Experiences in Madison

For all you food lovers, Madison has a lot to offer. The Farmer’s Market on Saturday by the State Capitol offers a tremendous variety of local produce and goods. Also, over Labor Day, my fellow incoming real estate MBA Amber House visited “Taste of Madison”, a wide assortment of offerings from local restaurants. Amber’s favorite dish, a creation of Sa Bai Thong Thai Restaurant, was the Shrimp Purse, a delicious shrimp and chicken concoction wrapped in a spring roll skin and served with their signature Green Curry. That same weekend, another classmate Michael Zollner attended the 38^th Annual Wisconsin State Cow Chip Throw & Festival outside Madison in Prairie du Sac. In lieu of a report, he recommends that everyone try out this unique Wisconsin experience to get the full flavor of the event, so to speak.

Upcoming Adventures and Activities

Our Real Estate Club is hosting several upcoming events.  We had our first meeting on September 20 with Prudential as guest, and an October trip is planned to San Francisco.  It will include site and development tours (e.g. Google’s campus, San Antonio Station), and professional presentations by Northwestern Mutual, Principal, Equity Residential, and more. Back in Madison, four of our real estate MBAs, including yours truly, competed against the other specializations in a Golf Outing on September 21 at The Oaks Golf Course in Cottage Grove.

Jonathan Brown comes to Madison from Washington, DC, where he managed downtown Class A office buildings for Tishman Speyer. Jonathan plans to leverage his prior experience with financial and analytic tools gained during the MBA program to develop and invest in urban commercial properties.

2012 Wisconsin Real Estate and Economic Outlook Conference

Building A Housing Policy That Works.

This year’s Economic Outlook Conference will be held on June 1st, 2012 at the Fluno Center in Madison, WI. With budget battles looming and the presidential election already in full swing, 2012 is sure to have monumental implications for housing policy. Unfortunately, developing and advancing bipartisan solutions to fix the nation’s ongoing housing challenges have proven difficult in today’s highly polarized political environment. But housing is not only a basic human need—it is also a critical element of our economy. Now more than ever is the time to take a fresh look at this issue.

This conference will present varied perspectives and analysis on current issues while stimulating ideas on how to spur the housing market and get the U.S. economy back on track for solid growth. Those involved include experts from the public and private sectors who are involved in government, business, and academia—all of them are on the front lines of housing market research, policy, and practice.

Featured speakers for the event include:

Karl “Chip” Case: Chip is the Co-Founder of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index and Professor Emeritus of Economics at Wellesley College. He is author or co author of five books, and is renowned for his contributions to the economics of housing and public policy.

Lawrence Yun: Lawrence Yun is the Chief Economist & Senior Vice President of Research for the National Association of Realtors®. He has been listed among the top 10 economic forecasters in the country, and has been named among the 100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders.

Please click here for the conference agenda and more information. To attend, you can register online here.

2011 Wisconsin Economic Outlook

The cover story to this month's Wisconsin REALTORS Association magazine is Stephen Malpezzi's economic outlook for the state for 2011. The recession, now "officially over", was not felt equally across the country; Wisconsin fared relatively better than some of the "really hard hit" markets in California, Nevada, Florida and others. "The national housing market has stabilized, but remains fragile," notes Malpezzi. "However, there is still potential risk from the defaults and foreclosures that much of the nation continues to experience."

What’s the Outlook for 2010 and Beyond?

The U.S. economy has a lot of inertia built into it; the good news this year is very similar to the good news from last year. GDP is growing, and with any luck, as firms exhaust their ability to squeeze more output from existing resources, employment growth will strengthen. Housing prices in Wisconsin, as elsewhere, have stopped their decline and appear to have stabilized. House prices are back in line with fundamentals, broadly speaking. We have done better than most states, though we’ve certainly had pockets of pain. The bad news is that a significant risk remains of downward overshooting, if we fail to successfully work through the foreclosure problem...We also need to keep a close eye on interest rates, and some of their fundamentals; for the long run, we need to get our fiscal house in order.

Click to read the full article and Malpezzi's recommendation for further reading.

For more from Wisconsin Real Estate faculty and their response to the economic crisis, visit our website.