Subject says it all. I'm in a commercial acquisitions role and have a strong interest in quantitative methods. Is this a valid combination? An MBA is beyond me at the moment, and if I think about where the future of our industry could be I feel like this combination might be a viable option.
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So, there are many and increasing uses of data and advanced research methods in institutional real estate. Lot's of jobs are adding "data scientists" and looking for people with greater level of analytical skills. I work in the research/strategy field for a major developer so I am squarely in this world (came from consulting/advisory world before current role).
That said, the quantitative MSFs may be a waste of time. My understanding is they focus most everything on analysis of publicly traded securities (stocks, bonds, options), portfolio management, and other optimization of financial assets. Real estate and other "real" assets are more inline with private securities and a lot of methods do not transfer (the data doesn't exist, neither does the continuous trading market required to exploit those strategies).
The skill you would more benefit from are urban economics, geospatial intelligence (GIS), forecasting, and general macro/micro economic research. Being able to program in R/Python is the language of the day. Financial economics and capital market dynamics are important (i.e. can you model cap rates..), but the MSF is probably overblow for that.
To be honest, I am not aware of a program that does exactly what you are looking for (maybe MIT?). Some big programs (like NYU) have added real estate data courses to their MS programs as electives, and there are some unique econ/data programs focusing on urban development/econ. Personally, I'd look for a program that has the mix of hard skills and base urban econ if you really want to try and go this route.
As redever said, data science is becoming highly prevalent in the large CRE companies.
That being said, I don't think quant finance is the right fit. If your thought process is "can I apply those skills to a CRE investing role?" I think the answer is no. The degree will be focused mostly on public markets analysis, and analytics/statistics roles in CRE are typically more research-oriented in support of the acquisitions teams regardless. If you're interested in a research/analytics role that helps guide firm strategy but typically won't have a direct investing role (although the senior guys will typically get a seat at IC), then a masters in data analytics, statistics, or comp sci could be beneficial.
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