Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft will speak on resurrecting residential lending at the 15th annual Fisher Center Real Estate Conference on April 26 in San Francisco.
The event, to be held at the St. Francis Hotel from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., also will feature a real estate and economic forecast from Ken Rosen, chairman of the Haas School's Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics.
Nothaft will discuss events leading to the collapse of the residential finance market and how the subprime crisis turned into a general residential finance crisis. He will then focus on evaluating next steps to bring back the housing finance system.
Nothaft has served as the chief economist at Freddie Mac since 2001. He previously worked as an economist with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
The conference will include six panels exploring issues and trends in both the commercial and residential real estate markets, especially in California. Topics include green building; is distressed commercial real estate the next (great?) investment opportunity?; and has the residential market stabilized?
The Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics is sponsoring the conference in cooperation with the Berkeley Real Estate Alumni Association and the Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy.
The event has been approved for one re-certification credit from the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors. Conference organizers have applied for eight hours of continuing education credit from the State Office of Real Estate Appraisers and eight hours of consumer protection continuing education credit from the California Department of Real Estate.
Early-bird registration is priced at $325 until March 19. Registration then goes up to $375 until April 25 and $450 on the day of the event. For more information, visit groups.haas.berkeley.edu/realestate/ExecEd/AnnConfinfo.html.