CREF TRACK: CRE Market Outlook

Chief Economist, Senior Vice President, Research and Business Development, Mortgage Bankers Association

Mike Fratantoni, Ph.D. is MBA’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of Research and Industry Technology. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing MBA’s industry surveys, benchmarking studies, economic and mortgage originations forecasts, industry technology efforts and policy development research for both single-family and commercial/multifamily markets. Additionally, Fratantoni is president and member of the Board of Directors of MISMO and serves on the CSP’s Industry Advisory Group and the membership committee of MERS. Prior to joining MBA, Fratantoni worked in the industry in risk management and senior economist roles at Washington Mutual and Fannie Mae.

Senior Managing Director - Global Head of Real Estate Research & Strategy, Principal Asset Management

Richard Hill has 25 years of commercial real estate experience across a range of roles, including interest rate derivatives, capital markets, and, most recently, research. He is a Senior Managing Director at Principal Asset Management and serves as Global Head of Real Estate Research and Strategy. In this role, he works across portfolio teams on capital allocation strategy, leads the global real estate research team, and is responsible for delivering the firm’s house economic and real estate views to clients. Prior to joining Principal, he was Head of Real Estate Strategy and Research at Cohen and Steers, where he was responsible for identifying allocation opportunities across listed and private real estate and leading related thematic and strategic research. Previously, he was a Managing Director and Head of Commercial Real Estate Research at Morgan Stanley, where he was responsible for public REIT equity research, CRE debt strategy, and macro property research. Hill earned a B.S. from Georgetown University and is based in New York.