Publications

April 2016 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Dan Gilbert: Crazy or Crazy Like a Fox?

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz

Keywords: Detroit; Rock Ventures; Dan Gilbert; Real Estate; Buildings and Facilities; Demographics; Financial Crisis; Government and Politics; Housing; Risk and Uncertainty; Real Estate Industry; United States

September 1993 (Revised January 1994)
Case

Habitat for Humanity International

Habitat for Humanity, a not-for-profit, volunteer-based home builder, is coping with years of rapid growth and success. They now face a series of options to continue their successful course and must make corresponding organizational adjustments. Teaching objectives... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Nonprofit Organizations; Growth Management; Housing; Service Industry; United States

29 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

The Next Marketing Challenge: Selling to ’Simplifiers’

Rich and Famous." As they grew richer, pressure increased on those below to trade up. And, as they traded up, pressure increased in turn on the well-off to buy even more—the second home, the big screen TV, and the latest sport-utility vehicle. Enter the big View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Retail; Consumer Products; Entertainment & Recreation

19 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

Affordable Housing: Israel and the United States

Housing costs too much for working-class families. Young adults are forced to live with parents, or cram together. Households spend more money on housing than they can afford. For Americans, the news is... View Details

Keywords: by Nicolas P. Retsinas, John H. Vogel & Charles S. Laven; Construction; Real Estate

December 2008 (Revised March 2009)
Case

Rosetree Mortgage Opportunity Fund

By: Victoria Ivashina and Andre F. Perold

In December 2008, in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Rosetree Capital Management was evaluating the purchase of a pool of U.S. residential mortgages. The firm had formed an investment vehicle to acquire troubled residential mortgages... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Borrowing and Debt; Mortgages; Investment; Housing; Valuation; United States

06 May 2002
Research & Ideas

Profits for Nonprofits: Earning Your Own Way

managers: "Can we teach [the people we serve] the importance of being self-sufficient while not being self-sufficient ourselves?" Bread Means Business The bakery at Boston's Haley House is a case study in how one group has... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

02 Feb 2012
Op-Ed

Once a Castle, Home is Now a Debtors’ Prison

We have created a housing hybrid in America, refashioning the single-family home into a mini debtors' prison. Almost 11 million dot the landscape. In Las Vegas and Phoenix, over 50 percent of homeowners live in one. “Understandably, most... View Details

Keywords: by Nicolas P. Retsinas; Financial Services; Construction; Real Estate

28 Apr 2011
Op-Ed

While Waiting for Japan’s Recovery, Let’s Enhance Supplier Competitiveness at Home

locations and introductions to potential customers. A useful analogy comes from the Welfare-to-Work Partnership, a private initiative of large employers stimulated by the White House after the passage of the welfare reform bill in 1996.... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

12 Jun 2009
Research Event

Business Summit: Lawrence Summers on Market Capitalism’s Historic Opportunity

Editor's Note: This is a summary of an HBS Business Summit presentation. View a full summary and video of the event on the HBS Centennial Web site linked below. Date of Event: October 14, 2008 Speaker: Lawrence H. Summers, Director of the White View Details

March 2025
Case

Boom, Bust, or Bullseye? Navigating the Short-Term Rental Market

By: John Macomber, Juan Pablo Heusser Killing, Siddhant Pardeshi and Sally Su

Short-term rentals listed via apps like AirBnB and VRBO are increasingly interesting investments for small-scale real estate investors. However, they have substantial operating costs, vacancy risk, and regulatory exposure compared to traditional long-term leases... View Details

Keywords: Housing; Acquisition; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Bids and Bidding; Leasing; Renting or Rental; Real Estate Industry; Accommodations Industry; Arizona; California; Texas

29 Apr 2013
Research & Ideas

Are First-Time Buyers Left Out of Real Estate’s Rebound?

The United States housing market is no longer the boat anchor dragging down economic growth. Data from the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices show that average home prices in an assortment of American cities have been on the upswing,... View Details

Keywords: Construction; Real Estate

February 2008
Teaching Note

The Big Easy, Not So Easy (TN)

By: Nicolas P. Retsinas and Ben Creo

Teaching Note for [208068]. View Details

Keywords: Projects; Risk Management; Partners and Partnerships; Natural Disasters; Contracts; Buildings and Facilities; Housing; New Orleans

18 Sep 2013
Research & Ideas

Excerpt: Manufacturing Morals

staff, and MBA and doctoral students—the campus feels like a small town. (This number excludes the more than nine thousand yearly executive-education enrollees, who typically spend only a few weeks on campus, as well as residents of student View Details

Keywords: Education

December 1980 (Revised January 1992)
Case

Savannah West

By: William J. Poorvu and John H. Vogel Jr.

Allison Porter, a loan officer for Chemical Bank, must decide whether to make a construction loan on a 216-unit apartment building to be built in Savannah, Georgia. In teaching this case, one begins by looking at the economics, marketing data, etc., of the proposed... View Details

Keywords: Credit; Property; Financing and Loans; Banks and Banking; Housing; Risk Management; Valuation; Real Estate Industry; Banking Industry; Georgia (state, US)

December 1994 (Revised September 2011)
Case

The Millegan Creek Apartments

By: William J. Poorvu and John H. Vogel Jr.

Fleet Bank is considering a construction loan for a 390-unit apartment project in Austin, Texas. The case describes the location, market, product, and other real estate factors the bank needs to consider in making this loan. Also discusses the financial and... View Details

Keywords: Property; Financing and Loans; Banks and Banking; Housing; Risk and Uncertainty; Construction; Credit; Real Estate Industry; Banking Industry; Texas

13 Sep 2016
First Look

September 13, 2016

Augustine Heard & Company, a commission house focused on trade between China and the United States, in 1840. He welcomed his four nephews into the family business as it expanded in the increasingly complex economic and political... View Details

January 2004
Case

Macroeconomic Policy and the State of the U.S. Economy, 2003

By: David A. Moss

Based on excerpts from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on July 16, 2003, as well as economic data that were available to Chairman Greenspan at the time. Taken together, the text... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Banks and Banking; Policy; Housing; Analytics and Data Science; Problems and Challenges; Urban Development; United States