MIT starts up new real estate indexes

The MIT Center for Real Estate and Real Capital Analytics said today they are launching a new set of indexes for tracking US commercial investment property prices.

The MIT Center for Real Estate said it developed a new suite of 29 indexes to support derivatives trading such as index return swaps. The indexes are based on data provided by Real Capital Analytics, a research and consulting firm in New York.

"The development of an active futures market, which does not currently exist for commercial property, would greatly increase the efficiency of the real estate industry," David Geltner, director of the MIT Center for Real Estate, in a statement.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)