What I'm Reading Everything Must Go: San Francisco's biggest tech companies are sitting on a mountain of empty office space that has come available for sublease. Unlike landlords, these companies are not in the business of leasing real estate and are willing to take big impairments to sublease at a...
May 17th – Trickle
What I'm Reading Trickle: Big banks have seen non-performing loans on their books double year over year. The bad news (for distressed investors)? That translates into only $15.4 billion in non-performing loans on the books with another $2.1 billion in foreclosed properties - a pittance when stacked against the $250+...
May 14th – Safe Haven
What I'm Reading Safe Haven: Capital is flooding into Opportunity Zones as other traditional real estate tax advantages come under fire from the Biden Administration. At the moment, it looks like any revisions to the program will be minor, making it relatively more attractive to investors in the event that...
May 13th – Running on Empty
What I'm Reading Running on Empty: Construction of entry level homes has been trailing off since the mid-1970s. In the early 1980s, the percentage of new homes constructed below 1,400 sf was roughly 40%. Today it sits below 10%. The combination of low supply and high demand in the space...
March 12th – Big Shift
What I'm Reading Turning Inward: Foreign investors in the US are changing their sights from trophy properties in a handful of gateway cities to secondary markets that are experiencing population and job growth as persistently low yields make it hard to meet return targets. Yardi Matrix Same as it Ever...
May 11th – Running of the Bulls
What I'm Reading Glass Half Full: The results DLA Piper’s latest State of the Market Survey revealed no shortage of bullish sentiment about commercial real estate with 74% expressing optimism about the market in 2021 versus just 24% a year prior. Respondents were especially bullish on markets like Austin and...
May 10th – Leading Indicator
What I'm Reading Out Ahead: Zumper's National Rent Report last week showed some improvements in most, but not all of the expensive coastal cities that were hit especially hard by COVID. IMO, the big news was in some of the raw search data that wasn't in the report but rather...
May 7th – All Aboard
What I'm Reading Jumping on Board: When the pandemic hit last year, many of us waited for legendary distressed investor and self-proclaimed "grave dancer" Sam Zell to make an acquisition. Well, the wait is over but the acquisition is unexpected. Rather than targeting a struggling retail, hospitality or office purchase,...
May 6th – More Than Meets the Eye
What I'm Reading Evolution: A new breed of flexible work landlords is converting unused suburban retail locations to office space, potentially transforming downtowns in the process. Wall Street Journal Bottleneck: The Biden administration is racing to end a bottleneck that has prevented state and local governments from distributing nearly $50...
May 5th – Upping the Stakes
What I'm Reading Risk On: According to CBRE's 2021 Investor Intentions Survey, most core or core-plus investors expect their unlevered target returns to fall slightly or stay the same. However, those playing in the value add and distressed spaces anticipate that returns will increase, especially those based in the US. ...