Incorporate cash flow into pro forma calculations

[pksohn]

As an urbansim Developer object, I want to be able to make a decision on whether to build a project or not based on an internal rate of return or (given a discount rate) a net present value.

We should also expose the IRR/NPV figure to the end user.

[pksohn]

After doing some further thinking and reading, I think we need to discuss this with someone more well-versed in real estate. Paul and I are workign on this, but just wanted to make a note here. There are a lot of specific pieces we could add to feasibility analyses, including:

• Inflation
• Financing costs / leveraged vs unleveraged returns / loan-to-X ratios
• After-tax revenue
• Calculation of IRR / NPV at a certain IRR
• Sales revenue vs. rental revenue
• Project length
• Etc.

The question is, which of these and other features should we prioritize? Which will make the biggest difference for generating more realistic results on an aggregate scale?

[pksohn]

We should prioritize pro forma improvements that are endogenous to the urbansim model system, i.e. take inputs from other urbansim models rather than user-provided.