Thomas G. Thibodeau

Biography

In 1980, Tom received a Ph.D. in Economics and an M.S. degree in Statistics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. After completing his Ph.D., Tom was a Research Associate in the Housing Division of The Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. At the Urban Institute, Tom developed house price indices; developed econometric models designed to explain spatial and temporal variation in house prices; evaluated Federal programs for subsidizing low-income housing; and served as a staff consultant for President Reagan's Commission on Housing. From 1983 through July 2004, he was on the Real Estate faculty at the Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University. During the 1998-1999 academic year, he was a Visiting Professor of Real Estate at the Wharton School of Business, the University of Pennsylvania, and a Visiting Scholar at the Philadelphia Fed.

Between 2000 and 2005, Tom was the managing editor of Real Estate Economics. This academic journal publishes scholarly research on current and emerging real estate issues. The publication facilitates communication among academic researchers and industry professionals and seeks to improve the analysis of real estate decisions. Tom also serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Journal of Real Estate Research, Journal of Housing Research and Journal of Housing Economics. He is a Past President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA) and is a Fellow of the Homer Hoyt Advanced Studies Institute. In 2008, AREUEA awarded Tom the George Bloom Award for “his outstanding contributions to the field of real estate.” In October 2009, the National Association of Industrial Office Properties (NAIOP) Research Foundation Governors appointed Tom a NAIOP Distinguished Fellow.

Tom’s research has been published in numerous nationally recognized refereed journals including Real Estate Economics (formerly Journal of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association or AREUEA Journal), Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Journal of Urban Economics, Land Economics, Journal of Housing Research, Journal of Real Estate Research, Housing Policy Debate, Real Estate Review, Real Estate Finance and Property Tax Journal. According to Harzing’s Publish or Perish, Tom’s academic research has accumulated over 2,100 citations in the academic literature (and 545 citations according to the ISI Web of Knowledge). He has seven publications that have each accumulated over 100 citations (according to Harzing’s Publish or Perish). He has the most cited paper ever published in Journal of Housing Economics: “Housing Market Segmentation,” with Allen Goodman, 1998 (224 citations according to Harzing; 80 citations according to ISI); the second most cited paper ever published in Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics: “Analysis of Spatial Autocorrelation in House Prices,” with S. Basu, 1998 (268 citations according to Harzing; 76 according to ISI); and two papers in the top 30 most cited papers ever published in Real Estate Economics: “Real Estate Investment Funds: Performance and Portfolio Considerations,” with W.B. Brueggeman and A.H. Chen, 1984 (with 167 citations according to Harzing; 42 according to ISI) and “Estimation of Mortgage Defaults using Disaggregate Loan History Data,” with K.D. Vandell, 1985 (with 104 citations according to Harzing; 35 according to ISI). “Evolution of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association,” (by P.H. Hendershott, T.G. Thibodeau and H.C. Smith) Real Estate Economics (REE), 37(4):559-599 recognized Tom as one of the most published REE authors during the 1973-2008 period.

Tom taught Real Estate Finance and Investments and Real Estate Economics in the MBA Program at Leeds. He also taught Real Estate Finance and Investments to undergraduates at Leeds. He has taught courses in Real Estate Fundamentals, Real Estate Markets and Valuation, Real Estate Development, Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities, Managerial Economics and Macroeconomics. In the spring of 2009, Tom began teaching an ARGUS-DCF Certification course for University of Colorado (CU) real estate students. ARGUS-DCF is an income property investment/valuation software package that is very popular in the real estate industry. Tom had 75 students enrolled in five separate ARGUS-DCF Certification classes (a mix of CU undergraduates, CU MBA students, recent graduates and members of the CUREC). 74 of the 75 students passed the ARGUS-DCF Certification Exam on their first attempt. According to ARGUS, this pass rate is unprecedented among ARGUS-DCF Certification classes offered by either ARGUS or by universities.

Tom served on the Technical Advisor Board for Zillow.com. In addition, he has consulted for the Rocky Mountain Institute, Boulder Tomorrow, the Boulder Area Realtors, the City of Arvada, Colorado, Converium Reinsurance, AIMCO, Criterion Economics, L.L.C., the Town of Greenwich, CT, the Greenwich CT Roundhill Homeowners Association, Fidelity National Information Solutions, International Data Management, Inc., Zurich Reinsurance, Fannie Mae, The Urban Institute, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Government Accounting Office.

Research

Measuring and modeling spatial and temporal variation in real estate prices, identifying real estate submarket boundaries, real estate investment.

Honors

• Academic Director, CU Real Estate Center
• President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, 2001
• Managing editor, Real Estate Economics, 2000 to 2006
• Golden Key Teaching Award, fall 2000
• Fellow, Homer Hoyt Advanced Studies Institute, 1998 to present
• Visiting Scholar, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, 1999