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Professor: Dr. Michael Carney
Department: Finance, Real Estate, and Law (FRL)
Course: FRL 383 Real Estate Finance

I took Dr. Carney's course during the first two weeks over summer and needed to drop the course due to schedule conflict. I'm actually glad that I've dropped the course.

It is highly recommended that you do not take Dr. Carney's finance course if you are not a Finance major or not yet knowledgeable in corporate finance. It will be one challenging quarter. If you visit his website and check the pdf file of student's grade, it is not surprising to find more than half of the class is getting a D grade or below. It is that difficult.

If you know the material very well and study many hours after class, you can do well like the minority group of the class (only one student got an A in the FRL383 class).

But despite the level of difficulty, Dr. Carney is a very knowledgeable and an expert in the field that he teaches. The problem is his teaching and lecture style. He will not stood down to the student's level and oddly expects the student do be an expert or some student with a deep finance background.

If you do decide to take Dr. Carney, you've been warned. Expect to study and read the materials very carefully. Study and memorize the formulas and word problems in the booklet (sold in Bronco copy center). Good luck.

Unregistered

No joke on how difficult this class really is. I am minoring in Finance and majoring in Marketing. Despite the warnings on gradecalpoly.com, i ended up taking Carney's class because of the schedule and I had to study my butts off to earn that B-. And if you like to check out the pdf of the class standing, the grades are very disporportional.

Dr. Carney is one of the most challenging professor in the college of business. If you get an A in his class, you should be very proud of your accomplishment. And if you also get an A in the business law, you should give yourself a big pad on the back, really challenging too, especially the exam with the cases.

Unregistered

If he's not tenured he should be fired! If he is he should be as well!

Lanser on Real Estate June 24th, 2006

“Q. What’s your outlook for Southern California and Orange County?
A. I believe we’ll still see price increases for the foreseeble future – for at least a year. There may be some decreases – like in San Diego. On average, prices are still increasing at about 10%. That rate will slow down. But it will stay positive.”

…

“Q. Housing bubble?
A. I don’t see one bursting. When you ask “Bubble?” you imply a bursting. I’ve never agreed with a concept of bubble, or a burst. Perhaps a leveling off.”

Los Angeles Business Journal 5/12/2008

“Cal Poly Pomona finance and real estate professor Michael Carney said he is worried about the sharp drop in prices, especially when compared to the last real estate bubble that burst in the early 1990s. He believes it may mean the bottom is even further off than most people expect.”

“‘That prices are falling faster than sales is not a good sign in terms that the bottom is near,’ said Carney, noting that in the 1990s housing bust it took almost six years for prices to drop 20 percent. ‘You’ll start seeing year-to-year sales volume pick up long before we see a turnaround in prices.’”

I think Prof Carney is drunk on his cool aid!