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Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Commercial real estate volatility : a decomposition of historical market values

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Risk -- both its mitigation and its exploitation in pursuit of profits -- is likely the most important topic in the study of investment. Risk in private market commercial real estate, however, has been historically less well understood than other more liquid asset classes. To date, most of the research on risk in real estate investment has focused on how changes, cycles, or shocks in the underlying space or asset markets occur. This paper furthers the study of commercial real estate risk by decomposing historical asset volatility into its component space and asset market parts. We do this through the application of a variance decomposition framework on NCREIF NPI time-series data that has been de-trended of long-term secular market movements. In doing so, we are able to compare the relative contributions of space and asset market volatility to commercial real estate price volatility and, more importantly, demonstrate how the expectations of investors who sit at the intersection of those two markets may play an overlooked role in moderating or augmenting volatility.

Degree

thesis:*
Department dc:contributor.department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Real Estate. Program in Real Estate Development
Grantor dc:publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Year dc:date.issued
2019

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Whittier, Christopher J.
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • William Wheaton.

Subjects

dc:subject × 1

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.
Language dc:language.iso
eng

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123594
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/123594

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
MIT
Base URL
dspace.mit.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Whittier, Christopher J.. Commercial real estate volatility : a decomposition of historical market values. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019. https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123594