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...
April 30th – Up, Up and Away
What I'm Reading It's Official: The Biden tax proposal includes getting rid of the 1031 for gains of over $500k, taxing carried interest as earned income and eliminating the stepped up basis. Obviously, this is the first offer in a negotiation but if even a small amount of these proposals...
April 23rd – Dead on Arrival
What I'm Reading Dead on Arrival: $12.3 trillion of economic stimulus over the past year effectively killed off the US credit default cycle despite the lingering pandemic, resulting in the lowest-rated companies enjoying their cheapest borrowing costs in history. Bloomberg Blowback: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced an interim rule...
April 21st – Wait and See
What I'm Reading Wait and See: The office market is in for a long period of adjustment as tenants take a non-committal, wait and see approach to what the future will hold while scaling back gradually on their footprint. AVC Anti Establishment: Americans have unprecedented access to marijuana as numerous...
April 20th – Turning the Corner
What I'm Reading Turning the Corner: An analysis of the pace of CRE workouts by Real Capital Analytics showed that more US commercial real estate distress was worked out than arose in Q1. However, the authors were careful to note that there is still sizeable potential distress on the horizon...
April 19th – So It Begins (In Earnest)
What I'm Reading So It Begins: Despite the economic recovery, Q4 bank loan CRE data showed an uptick in distress, especially in hospitality assets. To be sure, this is still much lower than many anticipated but supports the thesis that reopening is a moment of truth for struggling properties. Those...
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...
March 30th – Game Over
What I'm Reading Game Over: Massive crowdfunding sinkhole Prodigy Network has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The company, which had raised a reported $690MM from investors was overleveraged and besieged by lawsuits when its founder died suddenly in May and investor communication ceased. This is a tragic reminder of the...
March 29th – Virtual Reality
What I'm Reading Virtual Reality: For those of you unaware, part of the burgeoning NFT craze includes platforms like Earth 2 and Metaverse that recreate earth digitally and allow people to buy up virtual property, "develop" it and trade it. Metaverse is now in the process of launching a REIT...