New evidence on the green building rent and price premium

This paper investigates the effect of voluntary eco-certification on the rental and sale prices of US commercial office properties. Hedonic and logistic regressions are used to test whether there are rental and sale price premiums for LEED and Energy Star certified buildings. The results of the hedonic analysis suggest that there is a rental premium of approximately 6% for LEED and Energy Star certification. A sale price premium of approximately 35% was found for 127 price observations involving LEED rated buildings and 31% for 662 buildings involving Energy Star rated buildings. When compared to samples of similar buildings identified by a binomial logistic regression for LEED-certified buildings, the existence of a rent and sales price premium is confirmed albeit with differences regarding the magnitude of the premium. Overall, the results of this study confirm that LEED and Energy Star buildings exhibit higher rental rates and sales prices per square foot controlling for a large number of location- and property-specific factors

Flight to quality? An investigation of the attributes of sold properties in hot and cold markets

This paper uses sales transaction data in order to examine whether flight from risk phenomena took place in the US office property investment market during the financial crisis of 2007-2009. The effect of the crisis on the pricing of property quality attributes, mainly summarized by the class category of each building, is investigated. In addition, the paper examines how turnover levels were affected by the market downturn and whether there were significant variations between different real estate quality types. The results of the hedonic regression models suggest that the price spread between Class, A, B and C grew significantly during the downturn. We also find that property attributes such as size, height and age are priced significantly different in ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ markets

Beasts to beer pots - migrant labour and ritual change in Willowvale district, Transkei

[From the introduction]: Why do some rituals disappear while others continue to be performed? Why do some persist in a relatively unaltered state while others are radically modified? In an article published in 1978 Monica Wilson drew attention to the scarcity of information on this subject, and proceeded to consider possible reasons for the 'resilience' of certain rituals, such as those accompanying initiation and death, and the 'obliteration' of others, such as those concerning the birth of twins. My concern in this paper is with the persistence and radical modification of a Gcaleka ritual called umhlinzeko or umsindleko, performed in celebration of the return of a migrant worker to his rural home. The earlier form of the ritual (umhlinzeko) is described and this is followed by an outline of the present-day form (umsindleko). The bulk of the paper is taken up with an attempt to explain why the one form gave way to another. In this respect the analysis concentrates on the relationship between the two forms and their socio-economic contexts, and tries to relate the changes in the form and meaning of the ritual to the changing economic and political circumstances affecting the Gcaleka and other Xhosa-speakers

Representations of the Working Class in Trump-Era Advertising

This essay argues that in the early- to mid-Trump era – starting with his active campaign for the US Presidency in 2015 and through his subsequent administration pre-Covid through February 2020 – working-class bodies were used in advertising to both contest and enact prominent values and ideological tensions that became prominent during Trump’s reign. Advertising used class-based representations in several ways: to critique Trump and his policies; to depict working-class hardships under Trump; and, conversely, to celebrate white working class masculinity, authoritarianism, and classed masquerades. Each of these themes highlights a particular tension indicative of the Trump era. Often contradictory, such representations exemplify stereotypes about the working-class and serve to solidify enduring and often stifling lessons about class in society

Taxpayers\u27 Remedies—Washington Property Taxes

The purpose of the discussion that follows is to consider the great variety of procedural devices that were developed largely by the courts prior to the anti-injunction statute of 1931, and to consider them in their setting in the tax machinery of the state. That statute represented an important shift in policy but until it is considered against the background of earlier available remedies it is difficult to understand the part that it will play in the future. Some consideration will also be given to the scope of judicial review as developed by the courts and the relation of this to the action that must be taken by the administrative machinery engaged in the taxation of property in this state