This study uses capital market data to measure the effects of REIT mergers on the wealth of the acquiring trust's shareholders. A significant increase in shareholder wealth is detected. This differs from the findings of other acquisition studies. The primary source of the value gain seems to be improved management of the acquired trust's assets.

I. Introduction, 163—II. The model, 163.—III. Empirical results, 164.

This paper revisits the relationship between land value and parcel size. The authors demonstrate that, using a simple arbitrage equilibrium argument, the value-size relationship is convex (concave) whenever land assembly (subdivision) is possible. They also explore further the impact of zoning on market outcomes.

This paper introduces an improved procedure for estimating capital asset price indexes. We jointly estimate conventional hedonic and repeat sales models via maximum-likelihood procedures, thereby taking advantage of the unique features of the individual models and using all the data that are available. Our model captures depreciation within the repeat sales model and accounts for serial correlation in hedonic data. The improvement in precision obtained by estimating the joint model is illustrated by smaller standard errors and narrower interval estimates for the resulting price indexes. We also carry out a simulation experiment that shows estimation errors significantly smaller using the joint estimation technique than either of the individual models or the GLS estimator of Case and Quigley (1991).

Periods of high mortgage interest rates that characterized the early 1980s have escalated the use of assumption financing in home buying. In these periods, there is an increased demand for alternative sources of financing and a movement away from conventional sources. The purpose of this study is to provide a theoretical and empirical analysis of the effect of the increased use of assumption financing on selling prices of single-family residential housing. Aside from physical characteristics, the financing arranged by the homebuyer is considered a major influence in determining house prices. This is especially true in real estate appraisal practice where differences in types of financing are one of the major categories of adjustment (see [1], [4], and [10]).

Although bargaining is common in markets for heterogeneous goods, it has largely been ignored in the hedonic literature. In a break from that tradition, we establish sufficient conditions that permit one to identify the effect of buyer and seller bargaining on hedonic models. Our model is estimated using a previously overlooked feature of the American Housing Survey that permits us to observe characteristics of both buyers and sellers. Results suggest that household wealth, gender, and other demographic traits influence bargaining power. In addition, variation in bargaining power arising from the presence of school-age children accounts for anomalous seasonal patterns reported in various widely cited indices of quality-adjusted house prices.