House Prices and Replacement Cost: A Micro-Level Analysis

According to housing investment models, house prices and replacement cost should have an equilibrating relationship. Previous empirical work mainly based on aggregate-level data has found only little evidence of such a relationship. By using a unique data set, covering transactions of single-family houses over a 25 years period, we establish strong support for the relationship at the micro level. In the time series context, we find that new house prices and replacement cost align quickly after a shock. In the cross-sectional context, we find prices of old houses and replacement cost are closely related once building depreciation has been taken into account. As to be expected from these results, replacement cost information also proves to be useful for the prediction of future house prices.Tobin's Q, building depreciation, prediction accuracy

A Slab in the Face: Building Quality and Neighborhood Effects

The quality of newly constructed single-family houses is usually homogeneous in and heterogeneous between neighborhoods. Such quality-clustering will be caused by the variation of natural amenities throughout a suburban area. Clustering will be enforced if the quality of neighboring buildings increases the value of newly constructed ones. To disentangle the natural amenity eect and the neighborhood eect, we use data from Berlin and exploit that the endogenous eect was weakened during the socialist period. Our results show that the exogenous variation caused by buildings constructed during this period still causes lower quality new buildings in the East of the city.housing supply, housing externality, natural experiment

Valuation of properties and economic models of real estate markets

Bewertungen von Immobilien sollen den Marktwert einschätzen und sind notwendig für Kauf-, Verkaufs- und Bauentscheidungen, für die Kreditvergabe und für die Besteuerung. Trotz dieser eindeutigen Aufgabenstellung existierten unterschiedliche Verfahren, mit welchen Marktwerte ermittelt werden können. Ein Bewertungsverfahren soll einerseits mit ökonomischer Theorie vereinbar sein und andererseits Bewertungen generieren, die beobachtete Transaktionspreise gut vorhersagen. Die Dissertation analysiert die drei wichtigsten Bewertungsansätze Sachwert-, Vergleichswert- und Ertragswertverfahren, zeigt das jeweils zugrundeliegende Marktmodell und evaluiert die kodifizierten Verfahren nach der Wertermittlungsverordnung (WertV) anhand von beobachteten Transaktionen. Darüber hinaus gibt die Dissertation einen Überblick zu Immobilienpreisindizes und zu hedonischen Methoden. Für die ökonometrischen Analysen wurden umfangreiche Daten zum Berliner Immobilienmarkt verwendet.Appraisals should assess the market value of properties and are necessary for buying, selling or building decisions, for lending and for taxation. Despite this unambiguous task different techniques exist for ascertaining market values. An valuation approach should be in accordance with economic theory and should generate appraisals, which are reliable estimates for transaction prices. This dissertation analyzes the three most important valuation approaches, i.e. cost, sales comparison, and income approach, shows the underlying market models and evaluates the valuation techniques that are codified in the German Regulation on Valuation (WertV). For the latter evaluations, appraisals are compared with observed transaction prices. In addition, the dissertation gives an overview on real estate price indices and on the hedonic approach. Extensive data on Berlin's real estate market are used for the econometric analysis

Dynamic buy-back for product recovery in end-of-life spare parts procurement

The efficient supply of spare parts is of prime concern for OEMs. Next to the traditional spare parts sources in form of final order and remanufacturing, the option to buy back broken products prevents the OEM from fulfilling his spare parts availability obligation in the end-of-life phase and increases his ability to remanufacture. This contribution seeks to identify optimal buy-back strategies for different settings regarding information availability and buy-back flexibility. A numerical study analyzes circumstances under which buy-back is especially beneficial for the OEM.Inventory Management, Spare Parts Management, Reverse Logistics, Buy-back

Renting versus Owning and the Role of Income Risk: The Case of Germany

In a world with complete markets and no transactions cost, the decision whether to rent or buy a home is separate from a household's professional income risk. If markets are incomplete and have frictions, however, profession- specific income risk, regional house price risk, and mobility needs will interact and should affect the tenure mode choice. Using panel data from West Germany, we establish homogeneous profession groups and estimate their regional net income risk and regional mobility. We then examine the impact of the risk and mobility variables on the tenure mode decision at the aggregate and the individual household level. We find that the diversification potential of renting affects the tenure mode choice as do mobility needs.Tenure mode choice, background risk, household mobility

Price Discrimination and Customer Behaviour: Empirical Evidence from Marseille

We analyse the interaction between a seller and customers in a shop on the fruits and vegetables wholesale market in Marseille using an unique data set. We find that customers' bargaining activity is correlated with the kind and location of the business. To determine how the interactions between the seller and the customers influence prices, we compare the price each customer pays for a given good with the daily average price. We find that a customer of the shop is more likely to pay a price higher than other customers for the same good if---ceteris paribus---the customer is unknown to the shop assistants, buys only a small quantity, or buys goods sold on commission. If the customer is known to the shop assistants, then loyalty and bargaining make it more likely that the customer gets better than average price.Face-to-face bargaining ; customer loyalty

The Accuracy of Long-term Real Estate Valuations

By using a unique data set of single-family house transactions, we examine the accuracy of the cost and sales comparison approach over different forecast horizons. We find that sales comparison values provide better long-term forecasts than cost values if the economic loss function is symmetric. A weighted average of both sales comparison value and cost value can reduce this loss even further. If the economic loss function is asymmetric, however, cost values might provide better long-term forecasts.prediction accuracy, mortgage underwriting, risk management

Transactions That Did Not Happen and Their Influence on Prices

This paper studies data from the wholesale fruit and vegetables market in Marseille. We have details of counteroffers to the prices that were proposed by the seller even when no transaction took place. With a simple heoretical model we analyse the evolution of prices during the day and in particular the relation between the final price struck and the proposals of the two parties. Periods with no buyer refusals, of offers or bargaining with no transaction will lead to a revision of the sellerÕs first price. More importantly the sharing of the surplus moves in the buyerÕs favour during the day. These presumptions are then shown to be confirmed by our data set.bargaining, markets

Automated Valuation Services : A case study for Aberdeen in Scotland

Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the three anonymous referees and the editor of the journal for suggestions and comments that helped to improve the paper. We thank seminar participants at the Technische Universit¨at Berlin, Fiona Stoddard, and Verity Watson for helpful comments. The usual disclaimer applies.Peer reviewedPostprin