What I'm Reading Out of the Bottle: The CRE industry has been notoriously slow to embrace technology. However, COVID has led to a substantial acceleration in the adoption of technology as a means to adapting. Now that the genie is out of the bottle, things are unlikely to go back...
February 4th – Signs of Life
One Big Thing Today I'm going to focus a major investment sale broker pet peeve: yield fluffing (and yes, I made up that term). For the uninitiated, a fluffer is someone who gets a male porn actor ready to "perform" before the cameras start rolling. I'm not going to explain...
February 3rd – Normalized
What I'm Reading Normalized: Before the pandemic, the barriers to widespread remote work were as much mental as they were technological. Now those barriers have broken down completely and the implications are huge for both regional population flows and the future of the office market. The Atlantic Back to Normal:...
February 2nd – Deteriorating
What I'm Reading Deteriorating: Moody's Analytics REIS is out with a somewhat devastating report for the office sector, predicting that vacancies will likely show their largest increase this year. The report predicts that the occupancy continue to deteriorate until at least 2023 with employers still pushing off physical space decisions...
February 1st – Prophecy
What I'm Reading Prophecy: Starting back in the summer of 2020, whenever people ask me what I think will end the market mania, my (somewhat tongue in cheek) answer has been that the market top will occur once WeWork is taken public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger. ...
January 29th – Behind the Scenes
What I'm Reading Behind the Scenes: Unless you live under a rock, you have probably heard about the massive short squeezes (and crashes) in troubled retailer GameStop and struggling theater operator AMC over the past couple of weeks. Both companies' stocks have soared but, despite the increases in valuation, both...
January 28th – Storm Clouds
What I'm Reading Storm Clouds: The apartment sector has been a bright spot during COVID-19 but that is starting to change. Enhanced eviction protection, lower rent collections and unprecedented declines in asking rent in some urban markets are taking their toll on apartment owners. During the pandemic, the share of...
January 27th – Long Road Back
What I'm Reading Long Road Back: COVID-19 has resulted in a near-total halt in business travel. Beyond the blows to airlines, hotels, travel agents and rental-car companies, the sharp drop in business travel is rippling through whole ecosystems of related commerce, including airport shops, downtown bars and restaurants, construction companies...
January 26th – Deep Hole
What I'm Reading Deep Hole: Nearly 20% of American renters are behind on payments. The typical delinquent renter now owes $5,600, being nearly four months behind on their monthly payment, includes utilities and late fees according to a new analysis from Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, and Jim...
January 25th – Rocket Fuel
What I'm Reading Rocket Fuel: Morgan Housel's latest piece about how COVID has substantially accelerated wealth and income inequality is an outstanding read and makes a strong case for an economic boom in the coming years - at least for some. This section on mortgage refinancings and the accompanying chart...