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,...
April 28th – Blind Spot
What I'm Reading Triple Threat: The worst-case tax scenario for real estate would be a simultaneous end to the 1031, basis step-up on death and doubling of capital gains. IMO, elimination of 1031 and doubling of capital gains would lead to far less transaction volume and increase the desirability of...
April 26th – Diamond Hands
One Big Thing One universal rule that becomes even more apparent when raising young children is incentives - whether positive or negative - drive everything. Tell a kid to clean her room and you may get an attitude. Promise her a reward of some sort if its clean for a...
April 16th – Backlog
What I'm Reading Backlog: During COVID, many US courts stopped functioning for months before adopting new technologies to move cases through, albeit more slowly than before. At the same time, cases including landlord-tenant disputes, foreclosures, contract disputes, tax appeals, partnership settlements have been piling up. Experts fear that once courts...
April 14th – Scapegoat
What I'm Reading Scapegoat: Luxury housing developments are often vilified by NIMBYs. However, they play an important role in the housing ecosystem. In a market that is functioning properly, today's new luxury unit is tomorrow's move-up and, if not enough new units are built, the fixed housing supply gets bid...
April 9th – Gravedancer
What I'm Reading Gravedancer: Amazon is buying up distressed shopping malls and turning them into fulfillment centers, often ruffling the feathers of neighbors - who would prefer to see mixed use redevelopment - in the process. NBC News Culling the Herd: Mall vacancies are increasing at their fastest pace on...
April 5th – Chugging Along
What I'm Reading Chugging Along: The Zillow-Case Shiller Housing Price Forecast showed a 12% YoY increase in February, up from 11.2% in January, with the authors of the forecast commenting that there appears to be "no end in sight." At some point, I have to imagine that rising mortgage rates...
April 1st – Rebound
What I'm Reading Rebound: Apartment List's rent index posted its largest monthly increase since 2017 in March. The markets that saw the fastest declines in 2020 led the way. Globe Street Wiped Out: More than 10% of restaurants in the United States have closed permanently since the coronavirus pandemic began...
March 31st – All For One
What I'm Reading Halt: As expected, the CDC extended their eviction ban residential evictions until the end of June. However, the extension makes no substantive changes to the policy, despite housing advocates pushing the administration to boost enforcement measures to prevent landlords from going around the moratorium. Politico Next Wave's...
March 26th – Recycled
What I'm Reading Recycled: In a sign of how valuable logistics real estate has become, some developers are taking old, unused golf courses and building warehouses on them. Imagine trying to explain this to someone who time traveled to 2021 from 2002. Bloomberg En Fuego: Austin has become America's hottest...