Faculty and ResearchExpert Guide

Education

• Doctor of Business
  University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin

Areas of Expertise

• Housing Market Dynamics
• Mortgage Markets
• Real Estate Pricing and Liquidity

Professional Activities

Dr. Zhenguo (Len) Lin is a Professor and Hollo Research Fellow at Florida International University. He received his Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin, Madison. His research is mainly focused on pricing illiquidity of private assets, mortgage markets, and housing market dynamics. His work has been cited by Federal Reserve, Department of the Treasury, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and National Affairs. His work has also appeared on several financial media outlets, including MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal-Smart Money, Yahoo Finance, Fox Business News, and the South Florida Business Journal.

Dr. Lin was ranked 2nd globally for the period of 2018-2022 based on the recent ranking in real estate research (Saginor 2022, Journal of Real Estate Literature). In 2020, he received the Graaskamp Award, which recognizes extraordinary iconoclastic thought/action throughout a person’s career in the development of a multi-disciplinary philosophy of real estate. He also received the William N. Kinnard Young Scholar Award in 2013, an international recognition for making significant contributions in his field. His studies include housing, immigrants and mortgage delinquency as well as racial discrimination in mortgage costs. His work “Spillover Effects of Foreclosures on Neighborhood Property Values”, which appeared in the 2009 Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, has proven invaluable in predicting the recent housing crisis. The paper has been heavily cited by about 400 academic studies. It has also garnered much recognition outside of the academic community - the paper was cited by former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in his speech at the Global Financial Literacy Summit on June 17, 2009 in Washington, DC.

Prior to joining the faculty of Florida International University, Dr. Lin was a Professor and Associate Director of Real Estate and Land Use Institute at California State University, Fullerton. He also taught at Mississippi State University and worked as Sr. Economist at Fannie Mae.

Courses Taught

• Advanced Real Estate Investment Valuation
• Corporate Finance
• Global Real Estate Capital Markets

Refereed Journal Articles

Beracha, E., Freybote, J., Lin, Z., & Seiler, M.

(2023).

Time on Market and the Cash Discount for Condos.

Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics

.

Chen, J., Hu, M., & Lin, Z.

(2023).

China’s Housing Reform and Labor Market Participation.

Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics

.

Hu, M., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2023).

Are Homeowners More Likely to Donate?

Journal of Real Estate Research

.

Hu, M., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2023).

Housing Disparity between Homeowners and Renters: Evidence from China.

Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics

.

Hu, M., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2023).

Amenities, Housing Affordability and Education Elites.

Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics

, 66(1)

.

Cheng, P., Lin, Z., & Zheng, M.

(2023).

Neighborhood Heterogeneity: Implication to the Weighted Repeat Sales Method.

Journal of Real Estate Research

, 45(1)

.

Hardin, W. G., Lin, Z., & Hu, M.

(2023).

Culture, Wealth, Gender, Real Estate and Consumption in China: It’s a Boy.

Journal of Real Estate Research

, 45(1)

.

Bian, X., & Lin, Z.

(2022).

Housing Debt and Elderly Housing Tenure Choices.

Real Estate Economics

, 50(5)

.

Chen, J., Lin, Z., Qi, X., & Wu, Y.

(2022).

The Impact of Governments’ Commitment to Housing Affordability Policy on People’s Happiness: Evidence from China.

Housing Policy Debate

, 32(4-5)

.

Deng, K., Chen, J., Lin, Z., & Yang, X.

(2022).

Differential Selling Strategies between Investors and Consumers: Evidence from Chinese housing market.

Journal of Real Estate Research

, 44(1)

.

Cheng, P., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2021).

Competing Selling Strategies in the Housing Market.

Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics

.

Lin, Z., Liu, Y., & Xie, J.

(2021).

Banking Deregulation and Homeownership.

Journal of Housing Economics

.

Lacour-Little, M., Lin, Z., & Yu, W.

(2020).

Assumable Financing Redux: A New Challenge for Appraisal?

Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics

, 60(1-2)

.

Cheng, P., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2020).

Price Discovery with Heterogeneous Sellers in Real Estate.

Journal of Real Estate Research

, 42(3)

.

He, X., Lin, Z., Liu, Y., & Seiler, M.

(2020).

Search Benefit in Housing Markets: An Inverted U-Shaped Price and TOM Relation.

Real Estate Economics

, 48(3)

.

Beracha, E., Freybote, J., & Lin, Z.

(2019).

The Determinants of the Ex Ante Risk Premium in Commercial Real Estate.

Journal of Real Estate Research

, 41(3)

.

Chen, J., Hu, M., & Lin, Z.

(2019).

Does Housing Unaffordability Crowd Out Elites in Chinese Superstar Cities?

Journal of Housing Economics

.

He, X., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2018).

Volatility and Liquidity in the Real Estate Market.

Journal of Real Estate Research

, 40(4)

.

Lin, Z., Liu, L., & Yang, J. (2018). Was the 2007~09 Housing Crisis a "Correction" to the Market? Real Estate Finance, 34.

Bian, X., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2018).

Bargaining, Mortgage Financing and House Prices.

Journal of Real Estate Research

, 40(3)

.

Bian, X., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2018).

House Price, Loan-to-Value Ratio and Credit Risk.

Journal of Banking & Finance

, 92(July)

.

Cheng, P., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2017).

Optimal Portfolio Selection: The Role of Illiquidity and Investment Horizon.

JOURNAL OF REAL ESTATE RESEARCH

.

Cheng, P., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2017).

Characteristics of Long-run Return and Risk: A Unified Performance Metric.

JOURNAL OF REAL ESTATE RESEARCH

.

Lin, Z., Liu, Y., & Xie, J.

(2016).

Immigrants and Mortgage Delinquency.

REAL ESTATE ECONOMICS

.

Johnson, K. H., Lin, Z., & Xie, J.

(2015).

Dual Agent Distortions in Real Estate Transactions.

REAL ESTATE ECONOMICS

.

Cheng, P., Lin, Z., Liu, Y., & Seiler, M. J.

(2015).

The Benefit of Search in Housing Markets.

JOURNAL OF REAL ESTATE RESEARCH

.

Cheng, P., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2015).

Racial Discrepancy in Mortgage Interest Rates.

JOURNAL OF REAL ESTATE FINANCE AND ECONOMICS

.

Cheng, P., He, X., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2015).

Market Risk Factor and the Weighted Repeat Sales Method.

JOURNAL OF REAL ESTATE RESEARCH

.

An, Z., Cheng, P., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2013).

How do market conditions impact price-TOM relationship? Evidence from real estate owned (REO) sales.

JOURNAL OF HOUSING ECONOMICS

.

Cheng, P., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2013).

Is There a Real Estate Allocation Puzzle?

JOURNAL OF PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

.

Lin, Z., Allen, M. T., & Carter, C. C.

(2013).

Pet Policy and Housing Prices: Evidence from the Condominium Market.

JOURNAL OF REAL ESTATE FINANCE AND ECONOMICS

.

Carter, C. C., Lin, Z., Allen, M. T., & Haloupek, W. J.

(2013).

Another Look at Effects of "Adults-Only" Age Restrictions on Housing Prices.

JOURNAL OF REAL ESTATE FINANCE AND ECONOMICS

.

Cheng, P., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2013).

Liquidity Risk of Private Assets: the Other Side of the Market.

Financial Review

.

Cheng, P., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2013).

Performance of Thinly-traded Assets: a Case in Real Estate.

Financial Review

, 48(3)

.

Cheng, P., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2011).

Heterogeneous Information and Appraisal Smoothing.

JOURNAL OF REAL ESTATE RESEARCH

.

Cheng, P., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2011).

Do Women Pay More for Mortgages?

JOURNAL OF REAL ESTATE FINANCE AND ECONOMICS

.

Cheng, P., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2011).

Property delisting, housing cycle and pricing bias.

JOURNAL OF HOUSING ECONOMICS

.

Cheng, P., Lin, Z., Liu, Y., & Zhang, Y.

(2011).

Has Real Estate Come of Age?

Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management

.

Cheng, P., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2010).

Illiquidity and Portfolio Risk of Thinly Traded Assets.

JOURNAL OF PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

.

Cheng, P., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2010).

Home Price, Time-on-Market, and Seller Heterogeneity Under Changing Market Conditions.

JOURNAL OF REAL ESTATE FINANCE AND ECONOMICS

.

Cheng, P., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2010).

Illiquidity, transaction cost, and optimal holding period for real estate: Theory and application.

JOURNAL OF HOUSING ECONOMICS

.

Lin, Z., Liu, Y., & Yao, V. W.

(2010).

Ownership Restriction and Housing Values: Evidence from the American Housing Survey.

JOURNAL OF REAL ESTATE RESEARCH

.

Gao, A., Lin, Z., & Na, C. F.

(2009).

Housing market dynamics: Evidence of mean reversion and downward rigidity.

JOURNAL OF HOUSING ECONOMICS

.

Lin, Z., Rosenblatt, E., & Yao, V. W.

(2009).

Spillover Effects of Foreclosures on Neighborhood Property Values.

JOURNAL OF REAL ESTATE FINANCE AND ECONOMICS

.

Lin, Z., Liu, Y., & Vandell, K. D.

(2009).

Marketing Period Risk in a Portfolio Context: Comment and Extension.

JOURNAL OF REAL ESTATE FINANCE AND ECONOMICS

.

Cheng, P., Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2008).

A Model of Time-on-Market and Real Estate Price Under Sequential Search with Recall.

REAL ESTATE ECONOMICS

.

Lin, Z., & Liu, Y.

(2008).

Real Estate Returns and Risk with Heterogeneous Investors.

REAL ESTATE ECONOMICS

.

Bond, S. A., Hwang, S., Lin, Z., & Vandell, K. D.

(2007).

Marketing period risk in a portfolio context: Theory and empirical estimates from the UK commercial real estate market.

JOURNAL OF REAL ESTATE FINANCE AND ECONOMICS

.

Lin, Z., & Vandell, K. D.

(2007).

Illiquidity and pricing biases in the real estate market.

REAL ESTATE ECONOMICS

.

Shilling, J. D., Vandell, K. D., Koesman, R., & Lin, Z.

(2006).

How tax credits have affected the rehabilitation of the Boston office market.

JOURNAL OF REAL ESTATE RESEARCH

.