May 20th – Shock Absorber

What I'm Reading Shock Absorber: Normal recessions often produce a vicious cycle of foreclosures.  When rents and property values fall, building owners stop paying their mortgages and lenders foreclose, pushing prices into a further downward spiral.  That hasn’t happened in this cycle as regulators allowed bank to delay loan payments...

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...

April 7th – Light the Fuse

What I'm Reading Light the Fuse: After a decade-long drought, worker productivity might be about to accelerate thanks to pandemic-induced technological adoption, which could lift economic growth and wages in coming years while staving off inflation pressure.  Companies made massive investments in technology, automation and videoconferencing software over the past...