What I'm Reading Shifting Focus: Foreign investment in US commercial real estate has exceeded pre-pandemic levels. The big difference is that overseas investors are focusing much more on warehouses and apartments than they were before the pandemic - just like domestic investors. Wall Street Journal Rise of the Machines: Advances...
February 9th – Round Trip
What I'm Reading Out of the Basement: The amount of negative yielding debt in the world is falling rapidly. After topping out at $17.8 trillion at the end of 2020, it has dropped to $6.1 trillion today. Expect this to continue to fall as central banks hike. Bloomberg One big...
January 26th – Blood in the Water
What I'm Reading Material Shortfall: Dealers in John Burns’ building products survey appear to be planning and buying inventory based on an inaccurate expectation of growth in 2022. If the results of the survey turn out to be accurate, materials companies are underestimating demand, which will cause more shortages and...
December 20th – Full House
Programing note: I'll be posting a bit more intermittently over the next couple of weeks. Wishing you all Merry Christmas and happy holidays! What I'm Reading Full House: People are increasingly buying homes with their friends as a way to deal with high costs and gain a foothold in the...
December 7th – Help Wanted
What I'm Reading Help Wanted: The construction industry is 2.2 million skilled workers short of what is needed to keep up with demand. Floor Daily I'm sure that a trillion dollars or so of infrastructure spending injected into this environment will have a positive impact...... Taking Control: Amazon has taken...
November 30th – Pass Through
What I'm Reading Limited Competition: Buying real estate off market is much more about avoiding protracted bidding wars and minimizing pursuit costs than it is about buying properties at a deep discount. Globe Street Log Jam: Homebuilders are struggling with labor and material shortages. As a result, construction timelines have...
November 11th – Boxed Out
What I'm Reading Boxed Out: Supply chain woes are playing to the strengths of large retailers like Walmart, Amazon and Target who buy in massive scale, and therefore negotiating leverage with manufacturers and 3rd party logistics providers. This is in stark contrast to mom and pop retailers who are struggling...
November 10 – In the Money
What I'm Reading Double Edged Sword: Long-underfunded state and local pension funds are reaping a historic windfall thanks to billions of dollars in record market gains and surplus tax revenues. Now they need to decide what to do with the money in an environment where assets are richly priced and...
November 8th – The Weakest Link
What I'm Reading The Weakest Link: Environmental and anti-business regulations make California the absolute worst possible place to be the US focal point for supply chain issues. Wall Street Journal Narrative Violation: Last week's taper announcement was met by rates falling substantially at the long end of the yield curve. ...
November 2nd – Sell the News
What I'm Reading Sell the News: Interest rates have increased in recent months as the Federal Reserve began signaling that they will begin tapering their bond purchasing. However, recent history suggests that yields tend to fall once actual tapering begin. US Housing and Mortgage Market Weekly Staying Close: Relocations are...