Real Estate scholar celebrated for career contributions

Graaskamp Award recipient G. Stacy Sirmans, the J. Harold and Barbara M. Chastain Eminent Scholar in Real Estate at FSU’s Herbert Wertheim College of Business, recently secured the No. 16 place worldwide among real estate scholars who have published the greatest amount of research in the top three real estate journals over the past five years.
Photo by Kallen M. Lunt Click to enlarge

Signaling immense esteem for his innovative work as a longtime real estate finance scholar, the American Real Estate Society (ARES) recently awarded Florida State University’s G. Stacy Sirmans with the annual James A. Graaskamp Award, one of the academic association’s highest career honors.

“There are a lot of people who would qualify for that award, so I was very honored and surprised to receive it,” said Sirmans, the J. Harold and Barbara M. Chastain Eminent Scholar in Real Estate at FSU’s Herbert Wertheim College of Business.

But Sirmans’ academic colleagues – both down the hall and across the nation – are not surprised by his selection. They say Sirman’s accomplishments embody the academic association’s intention for the award: honoring scholars with research advancements that redefine thinking within the discipline.

“Stacy is widely recognized for his influential contributions to real estate finance, housing economics, mortgage markets and property valuation. His work has shaped the foundation of the field and continues to inform both academic research and professional practice,” said Henry J. Munneke, the Roy Adams Dorsey Distinguished Chair in Real Estate and an associate dean at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business.

Advancing the field with relevant research

From his early work co-authoring seminal research on rampant assumption financing among home buyers to more recent studies analyzing the effect of climate-change beliefs on risk pricing in the marketplace, Sirmans’ work often breaks new ground. The knowledge he generates then provides insights other scholars rely on as they further examine real estate implications.

“Our job is to create and establish theories and then create the empirical work to support those, to prove them or disprove them, and then eventually that filters into business,” said Sirmans, who also has served as the academic director of the FSU Real Estate Center. “Our job basically is to answer unanswered questions.”

Among Sirmans’ significant co-authored research contributions over the years:

•    Climate-change opinions, disaster risk and single-family housing price growth (2025)

•    Agree to disagree: NAV dispersion in REITs (2025)

•    The role of tenant characteristics in retail cap rate variation (2022)

•    The capitalization of insurance premiums in house prices (2015)

•    Determinants of house prices: A quantile regression approach (2008)

•    The value of housing characteristics: A meta-analysis (2006)

•    The composition of hedonic pricing models (2005)

•    The effect of anchor tenant loss on shopping center rents (1994)

•    The historical perspective of real estate returns (1987)

•    Assumption financing and selling price of single-family homes (1983)

Sirmans’ persistent productivity outpaces most others in his field. He recently secured the No. 16 place worldwide among real estate scholars who have published the greatest amount of research in the top three real estate journals over the past five years, as determined by the annual Real Estate Academic Leadership Rankings in the Journal of Real Estate Literature. He ranked in the Top 10 several times in previous years for research productivity on this and other lists, rising to No. 7 globally. His successes play a large part in the FSU’s real estate faculty this year placing No. 2 among faculties worldwide for its volume of research in top-tier journals. 

Sirmans has forged a “remarkable career of consistent and innovative research output,” said Mariya Letdin, Kyle Riva Associate Professor of Real Estate and a colleague of  Sirmans at the Wertheim College. She hailed his “outsized contributions” in hedonic house pricing models, residential mortgages and, more recently, real estate investment trusts, and said his “continued enthusiasm and productivity are truly unique in the field.”

Additionally, his breadth of work has been cited thousands of times by real estate researchers and includes foundational papers for the core real estate areas of housing markets, brokerage and finance, said colleague Tingyu Zhou, FSU’s Dean and Kathy Gatzlaff Associate Professor of Real Estate. Along with the Graaskamp Award, Sirmans received, in 2017, the ARES David Ricardo Medal, given to a thought leader with an extensive record of publications in top journals that have also influenced new research, teaching, public policy and practice.

“These are among the highest honors in the field and reflect the lasting influence of his research,” Zhou said.

Sirmans also received top research honors from his Wertheim College peers across different disciplines, earning the college’s 2023 Distinguished Faculty Research Award and 2019 Outstanding Senior Faculty Research Award. He has also been instrumental in building the college’s Top 10 national standings in real estate, teaching a senior-level finance course in the undergraduate real estate program, which ranks No. 6 among public schools, and a graduate-level finance course for the MBA real estate specialization, which ranks No. 8 among public MBA programs with a real estate specialty.

Known as a scholar and a gentleman

What sets Sirmans apart from many other accomplished scholars, most said, is his collaborative spirit and generosity.

“Stacy is the consummate colleague,” said Dean Gatzlaff, professor emeritus of real estate and namesake of Zhou’s associate professorship who worked with Sirmans for more than 30 years. “He’s approachable, he’s collegial, he’s willing to listen, and he’s careful with his advice. He has always been incredibly supportive of the program’s initiatives and the work of other faculty.”

Zhou said colleagues turn to Sirmans for “conceptual clarity,” saying, “He has a rare ability to take an early-stage idea, identify the core economic question, and position it in a way that leads to a clear and publishable contribution in top journals.”

Letdin called Sirmans the “ultimate team player,” always game to review papers, chair committees, mentor all levels of students or pick up guests at the airport. “He is always happy to pitch in, and no task is too big or too small for him to offer help,” she said.

This kind support extends beyond Florida State University.

Justin Benefield, the Thomas H. Lowder Endowed Chair in Real Estate and professor of finance at Auburn University’s Raymond J. Harbert College of Business, first met Sirmans by chance in 2003, when they both boarded an airport shuttle in San Jose, California, headed to the same event more than an hour away in Monterey. At the time, Sirmans had already developed a glowing reputation as a well-respected real estate scholar, and Benefield had just begun his academic career. Enroute to his first-ever academic conference, Benefield focused on preparations to present his first-ever academic paper.

“Needless to say, I was nervous,” Benefield said. “Stacy spent the entire ride engaging me in conversation, giving me advice, distracting me and generally putting me at ease. He then showed up at my presentation the next morning. He had no reason to spend that much time on a nervous doctoral student from the backwoods of Alabama, but he did; and I am only one on a long list of folks with similar stories.”

Sirmans said while growing up, he never dreamed of becoming a university professor. One of 10 children raised on a farm in the small town of Pearson in Southeast Georgia, he said his hard work began at an early age.

“There were five us still at home – small kids – when our father passed away. So, our mother basically raised us,” he said. “The main thing it taught me was how to work, and so I sort of carried that through with everything I do. You started a job, started early, finished late. If something broke, you didn’t have the resources to just call somebody and fix it. You figured out how to fix it.”

Sirmans said this tenacity has served him well throughout his life, especially as he tackled advanced degrees. 

“I started college and didn’t apply myself, so I did not do very well initially. But I couldn’t quit, because you don’t quit,” Sirmans said. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business at Valdosta State University, Sirmans headed to the University of Georgia for his Ph.D. in finance.

“That first year almost killed me,” he said, but – again –  giving up was not an option for him. “So, I just kept going, and all worked out perfectly. I’m in the perfect occupation. This is exactly the place that I needed to be.” Sirmans taught at Emory and Clemson universities and served as a visiting scholar to the former Federal Home Loan Bank Board before choosing to join FSU’s faculty ranks 36 years ago.

Shaped by a legacy of collaboration

Sirmans credits much of his good fortune to the company he keeps. “One thing that helped me a lot growing up, and through all matter of circumstances, was always hanging around people who were smarter than me,” he said. 

His older brother, the late scholar C.F. Sirmans, became his primary role model. The two first collaborated as teenagers, earning money by playing in a popular band that traveled throughout the Southeast, featuring Stacy on keyboards and C.F. on guitar. As time went on, keeping the band intact meant wherever C.F. moved, Stacy soon followed. C.F. became the first to pursue an academic career; Stacy eventually joined him at the University of Georgia, and then both ascended to the top ranks of world-class real estate finance scholars. The pair continued to co-author research studies until two years ago when C.F., by then serving as professor emeritus at FSU, passed away.

These days, Stacy Sirmans finds opportunities to collaborate on research studies with another family member – his son, Stace Sirmans – who serves on the finance faculty at Auburn University. Stacy Sirmans also continues to play keyboards. His band, The Bushmen, plays set lists of mostly classic rock with select  country standards. The group plays private parties, including an occasional academic conference when it is held near the Atlantic Coast. Sirmans devotes the rest of his free time to his family, including six grandkids living in Tallahassee or Auburn.

After more than four decades teaching and researching, mostly in Tallahassee, the FSU scholar cannot imagine a better vocation or workplace. He praises the strengths of his faculty colleagues and said he appreciates the ongoing Wertheim College administration’s support and especially the new opportunities for all made possible by the recent $65 million philanthropic investment by Dr. Herbert Wertheim and the newly opened Herbert Wertheim Center for Business Excellence, the college’s $160 million home facility.

Staying true to his steadfast spirit, Sirmans said he has no plans to retire any time soon. 

“Oh, I still enjoy it immensely,” he said about his academic responsibilities. “Well, I don’t even call it work.”

-- Melanie Yeager