NAIOP USC vs UCLA Real Estate Challenge

The Trojans from USC's Marshall School of Business and the School of Policy, Planning, and Development will defend their 2006 Silver Shovel championship against the Bruins from UCLA's Anderson School of Business.  Plan on attending the annual USC and UCLA Real Estate Alumni Dinner held in conjunction with the NAIOP Real Estate Challenge.

Thursday, November 15, 2007
6:00 pm
USC Galen Center
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Sixth Annual USC Casden Office and Industrial Forecast

Save the Date!
Thursday, December 13, 2007
4:00 pm
USC Galen Center, Founders Club
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Website Redesign

The Lusk Center has a new look!  Please visit our newly redesigned website for comprehensive information on real estate programs at USC.  The Lusk Center site features a calendar of events, citations of news stories featuring USC real estate faculty, research findings written by USC's respected real estate scholars, programs for employers to recruit talented students, and links to academic programs leading to degrees in real estate:  www.usc.edu/lusk

Update

USC Lusk Center experts continue to provide their insights and guidance in informing and shaping the views of policy makers and the public on real estate issues. Read more »

Interview with Kenneth Leventhal

Kenneth Leventhal, founder of Kenneth Leventhal & Co., is a dedicated Life Trustee of USC and nominated for a Lifetime Achievement Award by the USC Lusk Center. 

In 1949, Mr. Leventhal and his wife Elaine founded an accounting firm in their one bedroom apartment on South Shenandoah Street in Los Angeles. Mr. Leventhal went on to build one of the world's largest and most respected accounting and consulting firms, specializing in real estate and complex real estate related transactions. 

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Real Estate Employment Report

The Lusk Center tracks salaries and placement for recent graduates through its Real Estate Employment Report.  Data on 2007 graduates is now available. Undergraduate student placements were predominantly in real estate finance, consulting, and brokerage. Their salaries averaged $64,000 (salary plus bonus). Opportunities in development and finance drew graduates from USC masters degrees - MBA real estate concentration and Master of Real Estate Development - where students commanded an average salary plus bonus of $117,000.  View Complete Report.

Ross Minority Program in Real Estate

In June 2007, eighteen professionals from private, public and non-profit sectors completed the summer session of the Ross Minority Program in Real Estate. Through an intensive, comprehensive curriculum, the Ross Program is designed to provide professionals and entrepreneurs with the technical expertise and industry relationships needed to develop urban real estate projects.  Graduates of this program help turn around communities historically bereft of the development needed to attract businesses and families.

2007 is a year of expansion for the Ross Program.  In June, seventeen participants attended the Ross Program held at the Technion University in Israel.  The Ross Program's global offering was enabled by generous support from the Jewish Federation.  In November, the Ross Program will convene for the first time in San Francisco through a partnership with the Bay Area Council.

For additional information, please visit www.usc.edu/ross

Casden Real Estate Economics Multifamily Forecast

Released in April of this year, the USC Casden Multifamily Forecast reported that Southern California apartment rents would be bolstered by the housing downturn.  Delores Conway, Ph.D., Director of the Casden Forecast, predicted that the Southern California apartment market would continue to move forward at a healthy pace this year with occupancy rates averaging 96% across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties and rents rising an average of 3% to 5%, due in part to the subprime mortgage meltdown. Recent statistics on the region's rental housing markets have borne out the Forecast's predictions.  Read more.  On May 9, 2007, Dr. Conway was invited to present the multifamily forecast report to the Los Angeles City Council and provide city leaders with an insightful perspective on local economic growth.

Lusk Center Executive Briefing

The prolific Orange County marketplace was the topic of discussion at the June 7 Orange County Executive Briefing "The Orange County Landscape:  What Lies Ahead" held at the Shady Canyon Golf Club in Orange County.  The Briefing was held in partnership with the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development and the USC Associates.  Generous sponsorship was provided by Colliers International.  Stan Ross, Chairman of the Board, USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, led a distinguished panel of speakers in assessing the real estate market in Orange County. Speakers included Raphael Bostic, Associate Director, USC Lusk Center for Real Estate; Keith Eyrich, President, The Irvine Company Retail Properties; William H. Flaherty, Senior Vice President, Maguire Properties; William B. Montgomery, President, Acquisitions and Investment, Multifamily Division, SARES-REGIS Group; Douglas Neff, President, IHP Capital Partners; and special guest, Steve Sarkisian, who provided a preview of the 2007 USC football season.

Lusk100 Retreat

Over 150 real estate industry leaders attended the 2007 Lusk100 Annual Retreat held in Carlsbad, CA at the Aviara Resort.  The highlight of the session was a tribute to "Real Estate Legends."  The USC Lusk Center recognized five industry titans who over the course of their careers changed the landscape of the real estate industry:

• Kenneth Leventhal, Chairman Emeritus, Ernst & Young Kenneth Leventhal Real Estate Group
• General William Lyon, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, William Lyon Homes
• Stan Ross, Retired Vice Chairman-Real Estate Industry Services, Ernst & Young
• John F. Shea, Chairman of the Board, J.F. Shea Company, Inc.
• Raymond A. Watt, Founder and Chairman of the Board, Watt Group, Inc.

These legends are not only remarkable for their contributions to the real estate industry, but also for their unwavering and generous support of the University of Southern California and the Lusk Center.  Their constant backing has allowed the Center and the University to provide exceptional programs for students and the USC community at large.

Research Symposium

USC continues to demonstrate its leadership in the field of real estate research by convening symposia of scholars from around the world.  The 7th Annual Rena Sivitanidou Research Symposium was an innovative forum that brought together urban economists and political scientists.  The event entitled, "When Voters Make Laws: How Direct Democracy is Reshaping American Cities," successfully provided insightful analyses of city growth management and other political processes that impact the urban environment.  In addition to the Sivitanidou Symposium, USC sponsored two other symposia.  The first, jointly sponsored by the National University of Singapore, Hong Kong University and Tsinghua University in China, focused on global real estate markets and investment conditions in Asia. It was hosted by the National University of Singapore and represents on on-going partnership in research with these universities.  USC also jointly sponsored a conference in Bejing, China, with Renmin University on the growing role of Homeowner's Associations in China.  This conference was well attended, and should continue to solidify USC's leadership in the study of housing markets in China.

New Working Papers

USC faculty continue to study the evolution of urban areas. In a recent working paper entitled, "Urban Spatial Structure and Economic Growth in US Metropolitan Areas," Peter Gordon and Bumsoo Lee investigate whether density leads to higher economic growth. They find that metropolitan area with a more clustered spatial form grows faster, perhaps enjoying agglomeration economies when it is small; whereas more dispersion leads to higher growth rates as metro areas grow large. As cities grow they need to restructure to mitigate congestion costs and other diseconomies of size. The analysis suggests that there is not a single efficient urban form for metropolitan areas. Real the full paper

USC Real Estate Faculty Research

A complete set of Lusk Center Research Briefs and Working Papers are available on the Lusk website:  www.usc.edu/lusk/research