213 research outputs found
Real Estate Income and Value Cycles: A Model of Market Dynamics
We develop a theoretical real estate cycles model linking economic fundamentals to real estate income and value. We estimate and test an econometric model specification, based on the theoretical model, using MSA level data for twenty office markets in the United States. Our major conclusion is that cities that exhibit seemingly different cyclical office market behavior may be statistically characterized by our three-parameter econometric specification. The parameters are MSA-specific amplitude, through the CAP rate, cycle duration (peak-to-peak), via the rate of partial adjustments to changing expectations about stabilized NOI and the market trend.
Exploring the Determinants of High-Cost Mortgages to Homeowners in Low- and Moderate-Income Neighborhoods
In spite of the recent impetus to reform home mortgage markets, particularly as they affect low- and moderate-income (LMI) households, little systematic evidence is available about how potential abuses in mortgage lending manifest in the mortgages held by those households. While racial discrimination in mortgage markets has a long history in the United States, the role of mortgage brokers in lending has only recently increased and become controversial. In this chapter, we uncover two mechanisms through which differential mortgage pricing occurs among LMI homeowners: black borrowers and borrowers who use mortgage brokers pay more for mortgage loans than other borrowers, after controlling for a wide variety of factors
Affordability, financial innovation and the start of the housing boom
At their peak in 2005, roughly 60 percent of all purchase mortgage loans originated in the United States contained at least one non-traditional feature. These features, which allowed borrowers easier access to credit through teaser interest rates, interest-only or negative amortization periods, and extended payment terms, have been the subject of much regulatory and popular criticism. In this paper, we construct a novel county-level dataset to analyze the relationship between rising house prices and non-traditional features of mortgage contracts. We apply a break-point methodology and find that in housing markets with breaks in the mid-2000s, a strong rise in the use of non-traditional mortgages preceded the start of the housing boom. Furthermore, their rise was coupled with declining denial rates and a shift from FHA to subprime mortgages. Our findings support the view that a change in mortgage contract availability and a shift toward subprime borrowers helped to fuel the rise of house prices during the last decade
Technology for Behavioral Change in Rural Older Adults with Obesity
Background: Mobile health (mHealth) technologies comprise a multidisciplinary treatment strategy providing potential solutions for overcoming challenges of successfully delivering health promotion interventions in rural areas. We evaluated the potential of using technology in a high-risk population.
Methods: We conducted a convergent, parallel mixed-methods study using semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and self-reported questionnaires, using purposive sampling of 29 older adults, 4 community leaders and 7 clinicians in a rural setting. We developed codes informed by thematic analysis and assessed the quantitative data using descriptive statistics.
Results: All groups expressed that mHealth could improve health behaviors. Older adults were optimistic that mHealth could track health. Participants believed they could improve patient insight into health, motivating change and assuring accountability. Barriers to using technology were described, including infrastructure.
Conclusions: Older rural adults with obesity expressed excitement about the use of mHealth technologies to improve their health, yet barriers to implementation exist
Development and Usability Assessment of a Connected Resistance Exercise Band Application for Strength-Monitoring
Resistance exercise bands are a core component of any physical activity strengthening program. Strength training can mitigate the development of sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass or strength and function with aging. Yet, the adherence of such behavioral exercise strategies in a home-based setting are fraught with issues of monitoring and compliance. Our group developed a Bluetooth-enabled resistance exercise band capable of transmitting data to an open-source platform. In this work, we developed an application to capture this information in real-time, and conducted three usability studies in two mixed-aged groups of participants (n=6 each) and a group of older adults with obesity participating in a weight-loss intervention (n=20). The system was favorable, acceptable and provided iterative information that could assist in future deployment on ubiquitous platforms. Our formative work provides the foundation to deliver home-based monitoring interventions in a high-risk, older adult population
Fabrication of Mullite Body Using Superplastic Transient Phase
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65799/1/j.1151-2916.1992.tb05542.x.pd
What Broke First? Characterizing Sources of Structural Change Prior to the Great Recession
Development of Reliable Lithium Microreference Electrodes for Long-Term In Situ Studies of Lithium-Based Battery Systems
CHAMPION: Chalmers Hierarchical Atomic, Molecular, Polymeric & Ionic Analysis Toolkit
We present CHAMPION: a software developed to automatically detect
time-dependent bonds between atoms based on their dynamics, classify the local
graph topology around them, and analyze the physicochemical properties of these
topologies by statistical physics. In stark contrast to methodologies where
bonds are detected based on static conditions such as cut-off distances,
CHAMPION considers pairs of atoms to be bound only if they move together and
act as a bound pair over time. Furthermore, the time-dependent global bond
graph is possible to split into dynamically shifting connected components or
subgraphs around a certain chemical motif and thereby allow the physicochemical
properties of each such topology to be analyzed by statistical physics.
Applicable to condensed matter and liquids in general, and electrolytes in
particular, this allows both quantitative and qualitative descriptions of local
structure, as well as dynamical processes such as speciation and diffusion. We
present here a detailed overview of CHAMPION, including its underlying
methodology, implementation and capabilities.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure
Paying to Save: Tax Withholding and Asset Allocation among Low- and Moderate-Income Taxpayers
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