The Federal Reserve Board of Governors hosts the ongoing “Keys to Opportunity in the Housing Market” seminar series, and in September 2023 featured 2 panel discussions. CBE’s Vince Wang (Real Estate) participated in the panel discussion entitled “Regulatory and Programmatic Strategies to Increase the Supply of Lower-Cost Rental Units.” The other panel topic was “Challenges for Rental Affordability in the Pandemic Era and Beyond.” Assistant Professor Wang discussed inclusionary zoning (IZ) programs and their impact on creating affordable housing. Read…
Department: Runstad Department of Real Estate
Assessing the roles and responsibilities of public housing authorities in state-level disaster plans
Khan, A. S., Aurand, A., Hamideh, S., Vickery, J., Walter, R. J., & Errett, N. A. (2023). Assessing the roles and responsibilities of public housing authorities in state-level disaster plans. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 98, 104074–. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.104074
Office of Research Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2023
The College of Built Environments Office of Research has completed the fiscal year 2023 Annual Report. This report highlights outcomes, accomplishments, and steps for future development related to research at CBE. The report features metrics on grants and contracts funding, along with other types of funding including internal UW support. Additionally, the report highlights spotlight stories that were published on the research portal, and other portal metrics such as publications added. The full report is available on the CBE Intranet…
Assessing Office Building Marketability before and after the Implementation of Energy Benchmarking and Disclosure Policies—Lessons Learned from Major U.S. Cities
Shang, L., Dermisi, S., Choe, Y., Lee, H. W., & Min, Y. (2023). Assessing Office Building Marketability before and after the Implementation of Energy Benchmarking and Disclosure Policies—Lessons Learned from Major U.S. Cities. Sustainability (Basel, Switzerland), 15(11), 8883–. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15118883
Abstract
An increasing number of U.S. cities require commercial/office properties to publicly disclose their energy performance due to the adoption of energy benchmarking and disclosure policies. This level of transparency provides an additional in-depth assessment of a building’s performance beyond a sustainability certification (e.g., Energy Star, LEED) and may lead less energy-efficient buildings to invest in energy retrofits, therefore improving their marketability. However, the research is scarce on assessing the impact of such policies on office building marketability. This study tries to fill this gap by investigating the impact of energy benchmarking policies on the performance of office buildings in four major U.S. cities (New York; Washington, D.C.; San Francisco; and Chicago). We use interrupted time series analysis (ITSA), while accounting for sustainability certification, public policy adoption, and property real estate performance. The results revealed that in some cities, energy-efficient buildings generally perform better than less energy-efficient buildings after the policy implementation, especially if they are Class A. The real estate performances of energy-efficient buildings also exhibited continuously increasing trends after the policy implementation. However, due to potentially confounding factors, further analysis is required to conclude the policy impacts on energy-efficient buildings are more positive than those on less energy-efficient buildings.
Keywords
building energy benchmarking and disclosure policies; building energy efficiency; office buildings; time series modeling
Mortgage Loan Costs: Magnitude and Drivers of Variation
Arthur Acolin & Rebecca J. Walter (2023). Mortgage Loan Costs: Magnitude and Drivers of Variation. Housing Policy Debate, DOI: 10.1080/10511482.2023.2236984
Abstract
This article uses national data disclosed as part of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) to examine variations in loan costs based on type of loan, borrower, purpose (purchase, improvement, or refinance), and neighborhood characteristics. Loan costs are generally higher for nonconventional conforming loans with higher levels of credit risks (loans with higher combined loan-to-value, higher debt-to-income ratios, and for investment properties). This implies that product and borrower risk impact loan costs. However, borrower characteristics such as income and race/ethnicity are also associated with differences in loan costs even after controlling for loan characteristics, location, and lender fixed effects. Total loan costs are higher both in dollar terms and as a share of the loan amount for Black borrowers and Hispanic borrowers, and total loan costs represent a higher share of the loan amount for lower income borrowers. These disparities are larger in neighborhoods with higher levels of lender concentration and implicit racial bias. These findings suggest that in addition to access to mortgages and interest rates, loan costs can represent a barrier for access to homeownership with a disparate impact for Black and Hispanic borrowers, which contributes to perpetuate the homeownership gap.
Keywords
Mortgage loan costs; homeownership; borrowing constraints; homeownership gap
February 2022 Inspire Fund Awardees: Progress and Products
Five projects were awarded Inspire Fund awards in February 2022. They have completed various stages of work and have provided a report on their progress and products. Below, excerpts from these reports are highlighted to showcase the work that has been “Inspired” in 2022-23. Rick Mohler: “One Seattle: Leveraging Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan Update to advance housing diversity, affordability, livability and racial equity” This funding supported products from the Architecture 594 research seminar and Architecture 508 design studio, which tasked students…
Jeff McCann
Jeff McCann has a breadth of experience in construction management, real estate sales, and development. He is the founder and owner of Outdoor Perspectives LLC, a land-use consulting company that helps clients navigate the complexities of land acquisition, feasibility and entitlement issues. Jeff has assisted clients in the development of over a thousand acres of land in the Puget Sound region and helped facilitate other major development projects across the state. He has also been a licensed real estate broker for more than 25-years.
Before pivoting into development, Jeff spent many years in construction management. As a third-generation dirt contractor, his family originally started out with two horses and a flatbed wagon hauling dirt in the Kent valley. Jeff is a lifelong Husky having earned three degrees from the UW. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Building Construction (BCON) (1994), a Master’s of Science in Construction Management (2000), and a Master’s of Science in Real Estate (2021).
Matthew Disston
With extensive background in real estate project management, marketing research and economic consulting for a broad spectrum of national and international clients, Matthew Disston brings to DMG important project management and analytical skills in both public and private sector work. His experience includes market feasibility studies, fiscal and financial analysis, entitlement and development processing, consumer research and economic analysis. Disston’s professional experience includes projects throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and South America.
Prior to forming DMG, Disston served as vice president for Valeo Companies’ west coast regional office. As part of the Valeo team, Disston was responsible for the development, product planning, market and financial analysis, architectural review, entitlement and jurisdictional approval for both single-family detached and attached homes in Santa Cruz, Fullerton, Rancho Cucamonga, Perris and Blythe California. Additionally, Disston served as a project manager for transient lodging, recreational commercial, event facilities and high-density residential components for mixed-use projects located in central Sonoma County, and Fullerton California.
Disston’s resume includes transient lodging, light industrial, office, single-family detached and multi-family residential feasibility analysis throughout California, Arizona and Nevada, traditional and entertainment retail feasibility in Mexico and Brazil, and consumer research throughout the United States. Disston was also responsible for the feasibility evaluation and market analysis for long-range planning of office, retail, hotel and industrial projects proposed on the 75,000-acre Irvine Ranch.
Disston graduated from the University of California, Berkeley where he earned a bachelor’s degree in urban economics. He is a past member of the International Council of Shopping Centers, and a past member of the Association of California Water Agencies and he served for twenty years as a Director of the Trabuco Canyon Water District, and five years as the president of the board of directors for the Southern Orange County Wastewater Authority (SOCWA) Additionally, he has a 32-year association with the University of California, Irvine, where he teaches classes. Recently Disston served in an advisory role for the development of the Market Analytics classes extension at the University of Washington and has taught in the Runstad Real Estate Department since 2017.
Shannon Affholter
Shannon Affholter is currently providing consulting and advisory services in real estate investing and career preparation. He is also an instructor teaching leadership classes at the University of Washington, Runstad Department of Real Estate, and business classes at Everett Community College.
Shannon was the Chief Operating Officer at Oakpointe Communities, providing operational leadership for one of the largest land developers in the Puget Sound. Before Oakpointe, Shannon was the executive director at the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties, the largest local homebuilders association in the nation, where he oversaw the Association in its entirety.
Prior to his tenure at the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties, Shannon was the Vice President of Business and Economic Development for Economic Alliance Snohomish County and was elected to serve two terms on the Everett City Council. He holds a Master of Business Administration from Western Washington University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Pacific Lutheran University.
Building a more just and beautiful future: CBE’s new faculty cohort makes strides on campus
The new cohort of faculty have made a big impact in their initial time on campus. Please see the full story here. The cohort includes: Dr. Narjes Abbasabadi, an assistant professor in the Department of Architecture and affiliate data science faculty UW eScience Institute, studies computation and decarbonization of the built environment. Dr. Amos Darko, an assistant professor in Construction Management, studies how digital technologies can help people better monitor, assess, understand, and improve the sustainability performance of the built…