Urban Economics and Real Estate Markets (Paperback)

by Denise DiPasquale (Author), William C. Wheaton (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This up-to-date, highly-accessible book presents a unique combination of both economic theory and real estate applications, providing readers with the tools and techniques needed to understand the operation of urban real estate markets. It examines residential and non-residential real estate markets—from the perspectives of both macro- and micro-economics—as well as the role of government in real estate markets.

From the Publisher
This up-to-date, highly-accessible text presents a unique combination of both economic theory and real estate applications, providing students with the tools and techniques needed to understand the operation of urban real estate markets. It examines residential and non-residential real estate markets--from the perspectives of both macro- and micro- economics--as well as the role of government in real estate markets.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 378 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall (September 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0132252449
• ISBN-13: 978-0132252447
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #576,244 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How to clarify your thinking about real estate in cities, March 2, 2005

By	Craig Matteson (Ann Arbor, MI) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

If I could recast the title of this book to be "The Economics of Real Estate in Urban Markets" I think you would be able to better understand what this book is about. Frankly, when I first read the title I was bewildered and unsure what exactly this book would be about. I think the term "Urban Economics" is an unfortunate one, but one that is actually well known and in use. After all, what is urban is not the economics, which are the same micro and macro principles you learned in college, but the complex environment in which they are applied and the admixture of both that is required to get to the root of the issues involved. But this is a quibble and does not detract from the real value of this useful book.

Real Estate markets in cities (the urban part of the title) are complex environments that involve the land itself, population and density, existing stock of buildings and their nature, regulations and codes, taxation, environmental concerns, the broader economy, industry and business mix, and much more. This book helps the reader develop intuitions and some algebraic tools about how to think about these issues and to combine them to come to better decisions about private and public investment, policy, and planning. What calculus there is, is kept in the footnotes for those interested.

This book is written for any reader that has had basic courses in micro and macro economics (or at least a general course discussing the basics of both areas) and has a decent command of high school algebra. It has lots of graphs to help the reader understand the intuitions involved and is written quite clearly. A general reader who had these prerequisites could work his or her way through the book on their own quite handily. However, the book is clearly aimed at upper level undergraduate or graduate courses in business, public policy, or urban planning.

I do recommend the book for those interested in this specialty. I do wish they had done a bit more careful job in publishing the maps in the chapter on Firm Site Selection. The legends are supposed to be shades of black and gray (always a bad choice in black and white - use hashing instead) and some of them have two or more areas that are indistinguishable by shade. Look on pages 83, 96, and 128 for examples of this problem. Nowadays, color is not that much more expensive to use and given the price of textbooks nowadays one would think that color would always be used. However, this is a tiny point.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars High Price, November 19, 2001

By A Customer

It is an excellent book, a little pricy, but of high quality. It is not for someone that has not studied or worked in real estate, planning or land economics before though; it is a graduate level course book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Text for Understanding Urban Economics, May 7, 2007

By	wm "wm" (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews

This book is an excellent source for understanding urban economic theory and how it relates to real estate market cycles. It is written in an easy to understand format with relevant illustrations. The reader will find its insights valuable for real estate desicion making, and understanding where and how many real estate forecasts are made.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in real estate development, however; only as a "required" economics text. It is not a real estate investment or financing guide to do "deals".