The Homer Hoyt Institute's Research Roundtable Program generated the idea of a Real Estate Capital Flow Consortium to be operated through a web site.

The Advanced Studies Institute funded a series of research roundtables leading to and including the Capital Flows Symposium at Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC in December. The series, under the leadership of Glenn Mueller, started with a discussion that included professional researchers at the PREA meetings in March. The participants included Jacques Gordon - La Salle, Will McIntosh -Prudential, Wylie Gregg - RREEF, Mike Miles - Fidelity, Doug Poutasse -AEW, Brian Webb - Aetna/Allegis, William Hughes - AEC/MIG, Jeff Fisher -Indiana University, and Steve Laposa - PriceWaterhouse Coopers. The second of the series was at the annual meeting of ARES in March. Attending were Will McIntosh- Prudential, Mike Grupe -NAREIT, Steve Roulac - Roulac Group, Geoff Dohrmann - Institutional Investor, Inc. Jeff Fisher - Indiana University, Steve Laposa - PriceWaterhouse Coopers, Ko Wang - University of California at Fullerton, Marc Louragand - Cornerstone, and Ron Donohue and Maury Seldin from HHASI.

The series ended with the symposium in Washington in December, 2000. Attendees included representatives from La Salle, RREEF, John Hancock, Fidelity, Torto-Wheaton, NAREIT, ACLI, Centerprise, and others including academics and the Chief of the Capital Flows Section of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. The following are excerpts from the welcoming remarks made by Maury Seldin, the Institute's representative:

"It is a pleasure to welcome you to this Real Estate Capital Flows Symposium.. At the Homer Hoyt Institute we call it a research roundtable. The purpose is to stimulate research that is most relevant to critical issues in real estate and related areas. As you know, now that securitization is an important part of the scene, a better understanding of capital flows is critical….

"A major impediment to accurate forecasting may be the feedback effect of what may be termed irrational exuberance (to borrow a phrase). Major changes in capital flows are generally based on shifts in fundamental conditions. These shifts, even if not forecasted in early stages may be revealed as they develop. Thus, early detection of shifts is a good clue for identifying a trend. But, it is not enough, we need a paradigm that considers what is becoming known as "behavioral finance….."

"The injured parties include more than those who take capital losses. The injured parties include society as a whole because society ends up paying a price for the inefficiencies. It can be in bailouts as with the S & L debacle. It can be in a less efficient allocation of resources. We are concerned. And, we can do better."

"A better understanding of capital flows will mitigate the oversupply of capital. A better understanding of capital flows will mitigate the under supply of capital. From the Homer Hoyt Institute perspective, we wish to mitigate the excesses. This is a societal goal. In the meantime, it is wholly consistent to assist the players in the early detection of the shifts and to assist the followers in understanding enough to avoid the excessive capital flows."

"Helping players capitalize on the shifts is part of the process. We hope that this symposium helps those of you who are focused on making money. Our reasoning is that you are interested in the research that will advance the state of the art, and that out of this research will come a better functioning of the system. The incentive of making money is just that - a means of making societal progress. Some of us are driven by a mission. We see societal change as what we ought to be working on. We see institutional innovation as a means for progress. At the Homer Hoyt Institute we have shifted the focus from direct grants as we were doing sixteen years ago when we held our first research round table, to working with others of similar interests and by fostering the relevant research - with as much rigor as is doable."

"Since you, here today, are the others with similar interests and with the intellectual resources to advance the state of the art, it is a great please to welcome you. So, together, let us see what we can do to enhance our understanding of the flow of funds, and to develop the research critical to fleshing out a paradigm that would better enable us to achieve our goals."