What I'm Reading Leading the Pack: Millennials were supposed to be the generation that spurned home ownership. Instead, they now make up over half of all home purchase applications as the group enters prime household formation years. The generation accounted for 67% of first-time home purchase mortgage applications and 37%...
November 29th – Turnaround
What I'm Reading Back in Style: Retail store openings in 2021will exceed closings for the first time since 2017. Department stores and specialty retailers are still closing faster than they are opening but even closings in that segment have slowed. The key here is integration between ecommerce and brick and...
November 17th – Space Available
What I'm Reading Risk On: The board of CalPERS, the nation's largest pension fund, voted Monday to use 5% leverage and alternative assets to meet its investment-return target, even after lowering that target just a few months ago. The trustees also voted to increase riskier alternative investments, raising private-equity holdings...
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...
October 27th – Between a Rock and a Hard Place
What I'm Reading Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The pandemic has highlighted how many office buildings need to be renovated in order to fit the needs to today's workers and companies. However, the supply chain crisis and labor shortage means that it has never been more expensive to...
October 22nd – Turning Point
What I'm Reading Turning Point: Amazon has dominated the industrial leasing market, sending prices soaring. However, the ecommerce giant is now beginning to pivot away from leasing towards buying and developing its own facilities. Bisnow Will be interesting to watch how this plays out as a competitor with zero capital...
October 12th – Held Back
What I'm Reading Trailing Indicator: Soaring home prices mean that more appraisals are coming in below contractual sales prices, causing deals to collapse. The fact that it often takes a couple of months to close these transactions means that comps, which appraisers rely heavily upon, tend to lag. While painful...
September 9th – Back to School
What I'm Reading Back to School: COVID caused slowing of new supply in the student housing market, helping to stabilize rents. Now that class is back in session, some of the world's largest property investors are pumping billions of dollars into buying and developing off-campus housing. (h/t Mike Deermount) Wall...
September 7th – Not So Fast
What I'm Reading Not So Fast: The Biden Administration's $3.5 trillion budget proposal is in limbo after West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin came out strongly against it in a Wall Street Journal OpEd, raising inflationary concerns. Wall Street Journal Speed Bump: The US construction industry's recovery from the lows of...