Cities are the most productive, innovative, and unequal places humans have ever built. This course gives you the economic tools to understand why, and how to do something about it. What relevance does urban economics have for real estate professionals, urban planners, and urban designers? What are the most important economic challenges cities face today — and what can urban economic concepts teach us about the next wave of real estate development? You will learn why cities exist, what drives their growth, and how to answer questions regarding major urban trends reshaping cities today using the core concepts of economics. How does the market value land, and what are the implications for development profitability, housing affordability, transit investment, and municipal fiscal health? How are cities adapting post COVID? Why does the housing crisis persist? How quickly will the market eliminate excess inventory in the office sector and what policy measures are required to speed this process? The course moves through these questions in two arcs. The first half–taken jointly by planning and real estate students–builds foundations of microeconomic reasoning, urban growth and agglomeration, labor markets, land rent, and the spatial models that explain how value is distributed across cities. The second half applies those frameworks to the policy challenges planners face most directly: housing markets and affordability, local public finance, transportation and urban form, segregation and neighborhood opportunity, and climate vulnerability.