FHA/VA Financing and Price Discounts

This study examines the effects of FHA and VA mortgage financing on home prices. FHA and VA borrowers receive higher loan-to-value ratios (LVRs) and payment to income (PTIs) ratios relative to conventional underwriting standards. These more lenient standards are offset by the payment of additional financing costs in the form of default insurance premiums and origination fees. The hypothesis for this study is that the origination fees (in the form of insurance premiums and the funding fees) associated with FHA and VA financing will (1) be capitalized into buyer reservation values and (2) result in price discounts relative to conventional loans with lower LVRs. Using a database of nearly 9,000 homes sales in the San Antonio, TX area, we perform hedonic analyses that indicate that both types of government backed financing are associated with reductions in selling prices. The results of this study may imply a cost shifting behavior on the part of buyers and an implicit subsidy on the part of sellers. Our preferred regressions find that the price discounts for FHA underwriting are about 4% (3.81% to 4.14%) relative to conventional financing. VA discounts, as expected, are smaller, ranging from about 2% to 3.46%. Given the prior literature, we hypothesize that the results are likely a result of the fact that FHA and VA homebuyers are able to shift some costs to sellers.

Thoroughfares and Apartment Values

While the monocentric urban models were once adequate for predicting the declining rent gradients for North American cities, the advent of a transportation system with major arteries such as turnpikes, thoroughfares and commuter rails has distorted the rent gradient for many cities. In this study we examine the rent (or value) gradient for the City of Philadelphia with special reference to the impact of two major urban thoroughfares on apartment values. We find that apartment values decline by approximately 2.2% and 3.8% per block from major thoroughfares, while holding distance to the CBD and standard variables constant. As to be expected, distance to the CBD still continues to exert a dominant influence on apartment values in spite of the impacts of the thoroughfares. The findings are consistent with Ôaxial growth theory.

Bibliography for the importance of sports historiography

Bibliography of recent books on the importance of sports historiography

Songs from the Civil War

The Civil War created a groundswell of patriotic fervor on both sides. Here, Paul Huffman looks at a book of music from 1865 in the archives at Lindenwood University and what it says about Northern views of the war and its aftermath

Public R&D, Private R&D, and U.S. Agricultural Productivity Growth: Dynamic and Long-Run Relationships

If accelerated productivity growth is to be an effective policy response for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, the appropriate means for raising productivity needs to be addressed. Previous research has shown a close correlation between investments in public agricultural research and total factor productivity (TFP) growth in agriculture (Huffman and Evenson 2006; Alston et al. 2010; Wang et al. 2012, among the most recent, comprehensive studies). Largely neglected from this framework, however, has been the role of the private sector. Private sector spending on agricultural research and development (R&D) has grown more rapidly than public agricultural R&D and is now greater than that of the public sector (Fuglie et al. 2011). While it is widely perceived that both public and private R&D make significant contributions to agricultural productivity growth, private R&D (because of data limitations) has rarely been included in empirical models of agricultural TFP growth

HEAVY-TAILED DISTRIBUTIONS AND THE CANADIAN STOCK MARKET RETURNS

Many of financial engineering theories are based on so-called “complete markets” and on the use of the Black-Scholes formula. The formula relies on the assumption that asset prices follow a log-normal distribution, or in other words, the daily fluctuations in prices viewed as percentage changes follow a Gaussian distribution. On the contrary, studies of actual asset prices show that they do not follow a log-normal distribution. In this paper, we investigate several widely-used heavy-tailed distributions. Our results indicate that the Skewed t distribution has the best empirical performance in fitting the Canadian stock market returns. We claim the results are valuable for market participants and the financial industry

Historic Districts and Land Values

We measure the net effect of historic districting on the value of federally certified historic sites. The impact could be either positive or negative depending on the tension between positive externality effects and the constraints on property rights. Since federally certified historic parcels are not severely encumbered by regulations, we expect positive externality effects to dominate any negative effects of constraining rights. We find that the net effect of historic districting on land values is significantly positive. We also find that while residential parcels within historic districts attract a huge price premium of 131%, the premium associated with nonresidential parcels within historic districts is statistically insignificant.

Mispricing and Optimal Time on the Market

This study is an empirical examination of the relationship between pricing and optimal time on the market (TOM). First, estimates of optimal TOMs for our data set are generated using a linear programming model. Next, a workable measure of pricing is provided based on predicted listing prices and predicted sales prices. We are then able to measure directly the relationship between pricing and optimal TOM. The results of our analysis indicate that both overpricing and underpricing would prevent the achievement of optimal TOM and result in suboptimal sales prices.

Improved Molding Tool for Plastics Engineering Technology Injection Molder

Plastic injection molding is an extremely versatile, preferred method of producing plastic parts because it is ex­tremely efficient. In the business of injection molding, it is important to have machines and tools that work prop­erly to get the job done. One such tool is the mold, which forms high quality plastic parts. The main objective of this project is to refurbish the current Frisbee mold to create promotional products for PSU’s Department of Engineering Technology. Parts were created with the existing mold to determine what issues needed to be ad­dressed, including: excessive flash on the parts/runner, a poor runner/gate design, a poor ejector system, no water for cooling on the mold’s B-side, and years of wear and tear. We developed baseline production and cost data when the mold was being tested. Dimensions of the current Frisbee part were also obtained. After finding what could be fixed on the existing mold, we used SolidWorks to create a new thinner Frisbee part design. Addition­ally, a mold assembly, a mold cavity design, and water channels were added into the B-side of the mold design so that the parts could be cooled. Autodesk MoldFlow Advisor was used to simulate the plastic material’s flow in the mold. After the designs were finalized, a new and improved mold was fabricated in cooperation with Vector Tooling, who agreed to donate their services to make the new mold. After the new mold was installed, better quality parts were produced with shorter cycle times, less scrap, and better ejection

A Single Antibody based ELISA for the N-terminal sequence of BAG-75, a New Biomarker for Bone Formation [abstract]

Biomedical Tissue Engineering, Biomaterials, & Medical Devices Poster SessionBone acidic glycoprotein-75 (BAG-75) is a secreted product of osteoblastic cells localized predominantly to areas of new bone formation. We have identified the N-terminal sequence of BAG-75 as LPVARYQNTEEEE and shown that anti-peptide antibodies against residues #3-13 only recognize the 75 kDa precursor and apparent 50 kDa fragment in serum and in osteoblastic cultures. Formation of the 50 kDa fragment is blocked by AEBSF, a serine protease inhibitor which we also showed blocks mineralization in osteoblastic cultures. Measurement of BAG-75 and its fragment concentration in serum represents a new method to estimate the rate of new bone formation in vivo. Our purpose was to establish an anti-VARYQNTEEEE peptide antibody based ELISA test to measure cross-reactive proteins released from bone into blood. Western blotting was performed using young rat serum from different ages, rats subjected to ovariectomy (OVX) or sham surgery, and normal human serum. Immunoreactive 50 kDa fragment peaked at 18 days after birth which parallels bone formation. Ovariectomized rats displayed a peak of 50 kDa immunoreactivty at 21 days after surgery which corresponds to a spike in bone formation in this model (~2.5-fold above controls). Comparable assays for osteocalcin showed only a 39% increase. Also, human serum contains a 50 kDa protein which cross-reacts with anti-VARYQNTEEEE antibodies. We then established a competitive 96-well ELISA using anti-peptide antibody and new sera at 21 days from ovariectomized or sham rats, a model for stimulated bone formation. VARYQNTEEEE peptide conjugated to keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) was used as the bound antigen. KLH-peptide amount, primary antibody concentration, secondary antibody concentration, and blocking agent were optimized in a series of experiments. Optimal conditions were determined to be 2 µg input KLH-peptide per well, 1/5,000 dilution of primary anti-VARYQNTEEEE antibody, 1/10,000 dilution of secondary antibody, and gelatin as a blocking agent. Sera from OVX rats and sham-operated controls were compared to the standard curve (r = 0.9923) created with free KLH-peptide as competitor to determine the equivalent amount of KLH-peptide present. OVX sera (n=3) contained an average 2.6 x 10-4 (+/- 1.4 x 10-4) µg peptide equivalent versus 1.05 x 10-4 (+/- 0.68 x 10-4) µg for sham sera (n=3). The difference was not significant (t-test, p=0.157), however, doubling the sample size is predicted to yield significance. Conclusions: A. Cross-reactive 75 kDa and 50 kDa proteins are present in human and rat serum and increase in concentration when bone formation is stimulated. B. A new, single antibody based ELISA assay was established to quantitate antigen released from bone into blood. C. In contrast to other commercial bone formation assays (collagen peptides and osteocalcin), the size of cross-reactive protein (>50 kDa) should preclude kidney filtration and facilitate measurement. D. This serum biomarker undergoes a 2-3 fold average increase within 3 weeks after simulation of bone. This test may be useful to monitor the early response to stimulatory therapy in osteoporosis patients or to repressive glucocorticoid therapy in sarcoidosis patients. Currently, a 1% change in bone mineral density requires 12-18 months to detect by x-ray methods