Anna Mathieu clarifies if real estate decisions are affected by investor and consumer sentiment and how severely the sentiment should be considered. With regard to international capital markets Mathieu conducts an analysis of the impact of investor sentiment on the return of the real estate-specific investment vehicle “Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT)” by applying a GARCH-Model. She investigates the effects of investor sentiment on the return and the underlying volatilities of REITs and Non-REITs during the financial crisis. The hypotheses are tested for validity in a GARCH-Model. Parallel to capital markets and thereby in changing from an indirect Real Estate investment perspective to a direct perspective the author conducts an analysis if consumer sentiment impacts the household decision to buy a new home in the US. Therefore a dataset with 385 monthly observations from 1978 to 2010 is tested by a component model. Contents< · The Impact of Investor Sentiment on REIT Returns · Investor Sentiment and the Return and Volatility of REITs and Non-REITs during the Financial Crisis · The Impact of Consumer Sentiment on the Number of New Home Sales Target Groups · Researchers in the field of real estate management and investment · Real estate developers, portfolio managers, investors, valuers, occupiers About the Author Dr. Anna Mathieu wrote her dissertation at the Real Estate Management Institute (REMI) of the EBS European Business School. .