Ivy Profile

Bio

Dr. Hua Sun is an associate professor of finance at Iowa State University where he teaches courses on real estate finance and investments. He conducts research on mortgage lending, house price index construction, behavior real estate, brokerage and information sharing mechanisms and general corporate finance. His research has been published at top journals such as the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences of USA (PNAS), Information Systems Research, Real Estate Economics, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, and Journal of Real Estate Research, among others. Dr. Sun earned a Ph.D in Real Estate Finance from the University of British Columbia, Canada, and he is an active member of the American Real Estate Society and the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association. Dr. Sun has given seminars to officials from the Chinese Department of National Land Resources and the Department of Housing and Construction via its overseas executive training programs. Hua's research has received national media attention and was featured at CNN, Washington Post, NBC, Bloomberg, etc. His recent publication at PNAS is ranked by Financial Times as #15 in its "Top 100 Business School Research with Social Impact" among business schools worldwide. Dr. Sun also served as an expert witness giving oral testimonies before Congressional committee about fair lending, financial inclusion and LGBT rights. Hua is married with Ying Li and they have two daughters. 

Academic History

• Ph.D., Real Estate Finance, University of British Columbia, 2009

• M.Sc, Real Estate Management, National University of Singapore, 2003

• B.Sc, Economics, Nankai University, 1999

Expertise

• Real Estate Finance and Economics

• Corporate Finance

• Housing Market

Selected Publications

• Deng, X., Li, Z., Seiler, M., & Sun, H. (2024) "Market Strength and Brokerage Choice in Residential Housing", Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 69 (4):741-777. Link to Paper

• Jiang, Z., Rai, A., Sun, H., Nie, C., & Hu, Y. (2024) "How Does Online Information Influence Offline Transactions? Insights from Digital Real Estate Platforms", Information Systems Research, 35 (3):1324-1343. Link to Paper

• Li, Z., Li, Q., Sun, H., Sun, L. (2022) "Diffused Effort, Asset Heterogeneity, and Real Estate Brokerage", Real Estate Economics, 50 (3):707-742. Link to Paper

• Deng, X., Anglin, P., Gao, Y., Sun, H. (2021) "How do the CEO political leanings affect REIT business decisions?", Journal of Real Estate Research, 43 (4):419-446. Link to Paper

• Luchtenberg, K., Seiler, M., Sun, H. (2019) "Listing Agent Signals: Does a Picture Paint a Thousand Words?", Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 59 (4):617-648. Link to Paper

• Sun, H., Gao, L. (2019) "Lending practices to same-sex borrowers", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116 (19):9293-9302. Link to Paper

• Freybote, J., Sun, H., Yang, X. (2015) "The Impact of LEED Neighborhood Certification on Condo Prices", Real Estate Economics, 43 (3):586-608. Link to Paper

• Sun, H., & Ong, S. E. (2014) "Bidding Heterogeneity, Signaling Effect and Its Implications on HouseSellers Pricing Strategy", Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 49 (4):568-597. Link to Paper

• Sun, H., & Seiler, M. (2013) "Hyperbolic Discounting, Reference Dependence and its Implicationsfor the Housing Market", Journal of Real Estate Research, 35 (1):1-24. Link to Paper

• Sun, H. (2010) "A Theory on REITs Advisor Choice and the Optimal CompensationMechanism", Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 40 (4):387-411. Link to Paper

• Tu, Y., Sun, H., & Yu, S. M. (2007) "Spatial Autocorrelations and Urban Housing Market Segmentation", Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 34 (3):385-406. Link to Paper

• Li, Q., Sun, H., & Ong, S. E. (2006) "REIT Splits and Dividend Changes: Tests of Signaling and Information Substitutability", Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 33 (2):127-150. Link to Paper

• Sun, H., Tu, Y., & Yu, S. M. (2005) "A Spatio-temporal Autoregressive Model for Multi-unit ResidentialMarket Analysis", Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 31 (2):155-187. Link to Paper

• Tu, Y., Yu, S. M., & Sun, H. (2004) "Transaction Based Office Price Indices: A Spatio-temporal ModelingApproach", Real Estate Economics, 32 (2):291-328. Link to Paper