The Acme Corporation Marketing Department

In Massachusetts, the median price of a home is roughly twice the national median, and the percentage of income devoted to mortgage payments in the greater area of Boston is 44.9%, the second highest in the country after San Francisco at 46.7%. State spending on housing programs, as a percentage of the total state budget, was 2.9% in 1989, but only 0.7% in 2002. State spending for open space acquisition or preservation has also decreased, but not as much as the rate of decline for spending on housing. Inversely, Boston Housing Report Card 2002 estimates that 15,660 units are needed annually to ease the affordable housing crisis. While it is evident affordable housing is a serious, present concern, open space preservation is pressing in its own spot light. The Sierra Club estimates the total land lost to sprawl is about 100 million acres, of which 25 million acres were lost from 1982 to 1997. Since 1945, Massachusetts has lost more than 1.3 million acres of farmland. More than 3 million of the Commonwealth's 5.2 million acres are undeveloped and unprotected.

As part of our final report we are expected to select a planning issue within the City of Boston and undertake an analysis of the issue from a planning perspective. An issue that the City of Boston is dealing with that caught my attention was the lack of affordable housing available to its current and future residents. As cities start to evolve and attract large amounts of people, they also face some drawbacks that can affect where and how city residents can live. Our trip to Boston, Massachusetts opened my eyes to the city’s housing issue and its increasing housing and land values. An issue of this nature often causes residents to be pushed out of the city, into the suburbs or can cause homelessness. Low to moderate income families and youth across the City of Boston are struggling to pay rent and make ends meet. After our meeting with the Boston Housing Authority, I wanted to further explore the issue of housing affordability so I reached out to the City’s Department of Neighborhood Development for more information This paper will look into some topics such as when housing became an issue in the city, if Boston’s student population plays a role, if there any shortcomings in terms of how the city plans for affordable housing, if there are any specific programs in place that deal with affordable housing and if Boston is looking into what other cities may be doing.

Pam and Susan’s department stores are in the process of opening a new business unit. There are two locations that are being considered for the new store and decision is based upon estimates of sales for both of them. My job is to use data gathered from each store as well census data in store’s trading zones to predict sales at both of the sites that are being consider for their newest store.

Using all the transactions in the data set, determine the revenue maximizing price for Copa. Here is a step-by-step approach: a) Fit a logit price-response curve to the data using the MLE approach discussed in class. (NOTE: For better numerical precision and to get good results in Excel, use prices in 100s. That is if the quote is $150 per person for a contract, use $1.5 per person in the MLE calculations.) b) Based on the fitted logit curve, what is the price (per person) that maximizes expected revenue per event? What is the expected revenue per transaction for that price? c) Assuming the annual number of inquiries remains the same, what would be the total expected revenue for the company if the price you determined in part (b) is used? How does the annual expected revenue compare to the total revenue earned by Copa in 2007? 2) Analyze the data to determine whether there are multiple price segments. a) What is your segmentation criterion? Explain clearly. b) What is the revenue maximizing price for each segment? What is the expected revenue for each transaction in that segment? (You have to repeat the analysis in part (1) for each of the segments.)

1. The local Mastermind store sells innovative educational toys. Part of their service is giving advice to customers about the best toys for a particular age group, which requires having more customer service representatives in the store. During the month long Christmas buying season, it makes half of its $500,000 yearly sales. Its contribution margin on average is 40% and its fixed costs for the year are about $150,000. The owner believes that she could make even higher sales, if she had more customer service representatives on the floor during the peak season. She plans on hiring four more people for 200 hours each at $20 per hour. How much additional revenue does she have earn to the nearest dollar

There was decline during the recession of the early 1990s, with the price of homes. The average price of homes in the United States remained somewhat stable until June 1997, then began to decline. The Case-Shiller Home Price index almost tripled from 79.91 in June 1997 to 226.38 in March 2006. The National Association of Realtors home affordability index, which relates the medium price of single family homes to the medium family income, fell below the line in the beginning of the first quarter of 2004, and reversed its in the second quarter of 2006.

The new owner of a beauty shop is trying to decide whether to hire one, two, or three beauticians. She estimates that profits next year (in thousands of dollars) will vary with demand for her services and has estimated demand in three categories low, medium and high.

A mix of housing age, old houses ( 40-100 years old predominant) and new housing developments

37) Zhao is advertising her import-export business and wants to find the most cost-effective way of delivering the desired number and types of message exposures to her target audience. Zhao is considering her ________________.

4. Using the following information for individuals and their willingness to pay for a bottle of ginger ale, calculate the total consumer surplus at a market price of $5.

Macroeconomics is an excellent tool for the analysis of the housing industry as something like a capital good, as a home is considered to be, cannot easily be studied in a short-term platform. Real estate is a good that costs several times more than an average persons annual income, in the United States that number is typically 7 times as much, and in the United Kingdom that number is 14 times as much. Several factors of both supply and demand directly impact the housing market on a macroeconomic scale. (Business Economics, 1)

This case involves an investigation of the factors that affect the sale price of Oceanside condominium units. It represents an extension of an analysis of the same data by Herman Kelting (1979). Although condo sale prices have increased dramatically over the past 20 years, the relationship between these factors and sale price remain about the same. Consequently, the data provide valuable insight into today’s condominium sales market.

v. What are the limitations, if any, to the estimates of the profitability of the two customers? (Hint: Consider what improvements could be made to the accounting system to obtain more accurate costs)

3. Which is the most attractive customer segment for MBC to target? Explain your reasoning.

Colin's unemployment status has caused him to consider opening up his own business. His dilemma is deciding where to locate his business; either at Great Eastern Building downtown or Exploits Valley in the mall. Due to him being unemployed, Colin needs to begin earning an income to live. To do so he needs to improve his projected sales so that his net income would be sufficient to live on and to be able to pay back Ed's investment in the business.