Rate My Professor Katherine Pancak

Katherine Pancak serves as Professor In-Residence in the Department of Finance and as Professor of Finance and Real Estate at the University of Connecticut School of Business, Stamford campus, where she also holds the position of Academic Director of Regional Campus Undergraduate Finance Programs. She joined the University of Connecticut in 1991 as a Lecturer and has since advanced through the ranks to Full Professor In-Residence, previously serving as Academic Director of Stamford Campus Business Programs from 2021 to 2025, Undergraduate Programs Liaison from 2001 to 2006, and Associate Director of the Center for Real Estate and Urban Economic Studies from 1991 to 1998. Before entering academia, she worked as an Associate Attorney at Robinson & Cole from 1986 to 1988 and as Vice-President and General Counsel at Mark Greenberg & Associates, a real estate development company, from 1988 to 1991. Pancak earned her JD from Boston College Law School and her AB in Economics, cum laude, from Mount Holyoke College, complemented by study abroad at the London School of Economics.

Her academic interests center on real estate law and policy, including regulation, public policy, and agency relationships in brokerage. She is the author of the widely used textbook Connecticut Real Estate: Practice and Law, now in its 17th edition (2025, with Kristen Haseney), having sole-authored previous editions. Notable peer-reviewed publications include “Do Taxes Matter to Foreign Investors: Evidence from FIRPTA Reform” with M. Howard in The Journal of Portfolio Management (2019), “Variation in Local House Price-Rent Ratios” in Journal of Housing Research (2017), “Do Laws Influence the Cost of Real Estate Brokerage Services? A State Fixed Approach” with A. Nanda and J. Clapp in Real Estate Economics (2016), “Using Eminent Domain to Refinance Underwater Mortgages: A Welfare Analysis” with T. Miceli and K. Segerson in International Review of Law and Economics (2017), and “Is the Compensation Model for Real Estate Brokers Obsolete?” with T. Miceli and C. Sirmans in Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics (2007). Pancak has been honored with the national Educator of the Year award by the Real Estate Educators Association (2008), the Journal of Housing Research Best Reviewer award (2019), designation as one of Inman News' Top 100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders (2013), and several University of Connecticut School of Business awards for teaching excellence, innovation, service, and outreach. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in finance and real estate in both live and online formats, contributes materials to the Connecticut Real Estate Commission, and serves as an elected member of the University Senate on various school and university committees.