Measuring the Effects of "Adults Only" Age Restrictions on Condominium Prices

Current U.S. housing policy prohibits discrimination in the sale or rental of housing or in the provision of brokerage services on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or familial status. Since 1988, an exception to this policy has permitted owners and operators of buildings and facilities that were intended to be operated as housing for older persons to discriminate against younger residents, including families with children and pregnant women, without violating the nation's fair housing laws. This exception was clarified by the Housing for older persons. The purpose of this study is to consider whether such restrictions have a measurable effect on housing prices. Based on data from condominium transactions in southeast Florida, the results presented here suggest that age restrictions have a positive price effect, holding other determinants of condominium prices constant.

Measuring Vertical Property Tax Inequity in Multi-Family Property Markets

Previous researchers have proposed numerous methods for detecting and measuring vertical inequity in property tax systems, where vertical equity refers to the assessment of all properties in a taxing jurisdiction at the same proportion of their market values. With evidence of inequitable assessments, property owners may be able to reduce property tax expenses by challenging their properties’ assessed values. This study demonstrates the application and interpretation of alternative methods for measuring vertical inequity in multi-family property markets using sample data. The results indicate that vertical inequities do exist in this sample, with lower valued properties being assessed at a higher proportion of market value than are higher value properties. This study suggests that owners of properties in lower value ranges in this market should carefully monitor the assessment process to minimize their property tax expense.

An Analysis of the Price Formation Process at a HUD Auction

This study considers whether auctioned properties sell for different prices than they would bring through private negotiation. After reviewing the procedural aspects of HUD auctions, we compare the observed prices of properties sold at one such auction with predicted market values based on assessment ratios for the region to detect any discount or premium. We also consider whether the order of sale of the auctioned properties affects observed prices. We find that sample properties sell at a significant discount relative to predicted market values and that prices tend to increase as the auction proceeds, holding quality of the properties constant.

Changes in Property Tax Progressivity for Florida Homeowners after the “Save Our Homes Amendment?

The “Save Our Homes Amendment?to Florida’s constitution limits annual increases in the taxable value of a homestead property to 3 percent or the rate of inflation (whichever is less) as long as the property is owned by the same owner. The amount of property value protected from taxation throughout the state by this amendment has grown to over $246 billion (13.9 percent of total property value) since the amendment’s implementation in 1995. This study tests whether the protection has accrued disproportionately over time among homestead property owners, the very group of people the amendment was intended to protect. The results suggest that the amendment has reduced the degree of progressivity in the state’s property tax system such that the owners of lower value home properties are shouldering an increasing proportion of the property tax burden relative to the owners of higher value homestead properties. The differential impacts of the SOHA across value ranges of homestead properties are likely attributable to differential appreciation and ownership transfers for higher and lower value homestead properties throughout the state.

Identifying Determinants of Horizontal Property Tax Inequity: Evidence from Florida

In the property tax literature, an ad valorem property tax is considered equitable if all properties in the taxing jurisdiction are subject to the same effective tax rate. That is, all properties, regardless of value or type, should be taxed at the same percentage of their market value. Because market value is a theoretical construct and not directly observable, errors in estimating market value may result in systematic inequity, with some properties taxed at higher effective rates than others. This study extends previous research on property tax inequity by examining potential determinants of errors in the property valuation process for a sample of single-family homes in Palm Beach County, Florida. The results indicate that assessment difficulty (as measured by the variation around the mean assessment to transaction price ratio) is positively related to lot size, living area, age of the home and the percentage of minority residents in the neighborhood and is negatively related to market activity levels, resident income levels, whether the property is the permanent residence of its owner, and whether the property has a swimming pool. The generality of these results is limited by the use of transaction price as a proxy for unobservable market value.

Commercial Bank Exposure and Sensitivity to the Real Estate Market

In this study, we assess the balance sheet exposure of commercial banks to the real estate market, and develop a hypothesis on the potential systematic effects of real estate conditions across banks. By applying a seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) model to bank portfolios, we test for the relation between bank values and a real estate market proxy after controlling for general market and interest-rate conditions. We find a positive relationship between monthly bank returns and the real estate index, even after accounting for general market and interest-rate movements. The sensitivity of bank values to the real estate market has increased over time, and the bank-specific sensitivity coefficient is positively related to the bank's balance sheet exposure to real estate.

Third-party imagined interactions: expanding imagined interactions as false memories in understanding interactions

Previous studies have found imagined interactions (IIs) help individuals recall past interactions and plan for future interactions. Those studies have not investigated what occurs when individuals imagine the interactions of others (third-party imagined interactions hereafter TPIIs), how the II varies with the party imagined or what happens when those imagined interactions create false views of what happened. To fill this research gap, this study proposed one research question and nine hypotheses investigating TPIIs, how they vary with the individual in the TPII, if they contribute to false memories and how they affect communication plans. A survey was conducted to gain information about the use of TPIIs and IIs to investigate the similarities. An experiment using an induced TPII, with a prisoner’s dilemma and an iterated chicken game was conducted to learn the effect of the TPII on plans to communicate. The research question found that TPIIs exist and are mostly similar to IIs in topics, imagined targets characteristics and functions. T-tests indicated a difference in frequency, valence, and variety characteristics and the catharsis function. Equivalence testing found other characteristics and functions to be equivalent. Based on social identity theory a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) found TPIIs do vary in valence and specificity with the individual’s group status. The odds of planning to cooperate with the other party in the prisoner’s dilemma when the other party was visualized cooperating was 5.6 times the odds of not. T-tests indicated greater mental effort in the TPII among individuals who developed false memories. Those with false memories were 1.8 times more likely to be competitive in the manner they communicated than those who did not have a false memory in the TPII, while A logistic regression showed people who had greater positive valence in the TPII were more likely to communicate with the other party. These results indicate in-group members are harder to imagine if no relational history is present. The more involved the TPII is the more likely the person will develop a false memory. TPIIs are used in planning for future interactions. The implication for conflict resolution is discussed

Does the Performance on Principles of Economics Courses Affect the Overall Academic Success of Undergraduate Business Majors?

Using a sample of 1,339 graduates from an accredited business school and the maximum likelihood technique, this paper explores the relationship between overall academic success and performance on the Principles of Economics courses. The estimated model, which also includes some demographic variables, shows that the rank of professors teaching the course, age of students, and the number of credits earned do not influence business majors' overall academic success. However, the grades earned on the Principles of Economics courses, gender, ethnicity, the major in which the student is enrolled, the number of years the student takes to graduate, as well as whether or not the student is completing a minor significantly affect the overall academic success or the final GPA of business majors.

College textbooks often present a biased interpretation of affirmative action policies

Affirmative action policies go beyond race; they now also cover women, age, disability, and veterans. But such policies are often framed by a misinterpretation of their intent. In new research into how college textbooks discuss affirmative action policies, Sherri L. Wallace and Marcus D. Allen find that such policies tend to be framed as being “controversial” rather than as being aimed towards legal redress. This leads to a conservative interpretation of affirmative action policy as being race-based, and therefore morally wrong. They argue that in order to eliminate such confusion and misinterpretations, college textbooks need to explicitly define affirmative action and spell out the policy’s inten

Reexamining the Impact of Employee Relocation Assistance on Housing Prices

In this paper, we reexamine the issue of whether corporate relocation assistance programs for transferred employees significantly affect sale prices of single-family homes. We estimate a hedonic price equation that includes physical housing characteristics, location factors, occupancy status, and type of seller for a sample of 2,441 transactions. Seller types include (a) transferred employees who were given direct relocation assistance, (b) transferred employees who were not given direct relocation assistance, and (c) sellers who were not facing an employment transfer. After controlling for vacancy and tenant occupancy, we find that houses sold by transferred employees who receive direct relocation assistance exhibit no significant price differential, but that houses sold by transferred employees who do not receive direct relocation assistance sell at a discount of approximately 3%.