What I'm Reading 800 LB Gorilla: Amazon is on pace to absorb nearly 120 million square feet of commercial space this year and accounts for eight of the ten largest industrial projects underway in the United States. The ecommerce giant is having a massive impact on everything from pricing and...
August 13th – Beach Reads Week in Review
What I'm Reading Feeding Frenzy: Bidding wars are typical in for-sale housing during a tight market. Now we are seeing them for apartment rentals. CNBC A Tale of Two Markets: Big apartment landlords are thriving during the eviction moratorium while mom and pop owners of buildings with five or less...
August 4th – Help Wanted
What I'm Reading Help Wanted: Booming demand for warehouse space, bolstered by the record 423.7 million square feet of industrial property under completion this quarter, could lead to significant labor shortages in the near term. A new report from Newmark estimates that more than 280,000 additional warehouse workers will be...
August 3rd – Packing Heat
What I'm Reading Packing Heat: The packaging industry is growing as soaring ecommerce adoption has led to higher demand for boxes. As a result, demand is increasing for industrial space used to produce and distribute packaging. Fast Company Waiting Game: Home builders are intentionally restricting the sale of new homes...
July 27th – Mismatch
What I'm Reading Mismatch: Most of the US is simultaneously experiencing a severe housing shortage and an office glut. Conventional wisdom suggests that vacant office buildings could be converted to residential uses. However, the bureaucratic processes are difficult, the conversions are typically too costly and office floorplates don't translate well...
July 15th – In N Out
What I'm Reading In N Out: Starwood is throwing in the towel on the mall business, selling 22 of the 30 malls that it owned before COVID and taking a loss in order to get out from underneath approximately $2 billion in CMBS debt. Essentially, Starwood decided that they will...
July 14th – Target Rich Environment
What I'm Reading Diamond Hands: Baby Boomers hold the lion's share of real estate wealth in the United States and are showing a higher inclination than previous generations to age in place rather than moving to assisted living. The result has been less housing supply for subsequent generations. New York...
July 13th – Risky Business
What I'm Reading Liftoff: With apartment shortages across much of the country, rents are climbing at the fastest pace seen in decades. Smaller growth markets like Boise continue to lead the way. With for sale housing expensive and development not keeping pace with demand in most places, the real risk...
July 2nd – Stop
What I'm Reading Mission Accomplished? With the housing market running white hot for a year, calls are growing for the Federal Reserve to start tapering its $40 billion/month purchase of mortgage-backed securities. Given the current environment - both fixed income and housing - there is a heated debate as to what...
June 29th – Fuel on the Fire
What I'm Reading Fuel on the Fire: Every $1 billion in additional e-commerce sales requires 1 million square feet of new warehouse space to support it. Using this calculation as a baseline, the US will need 330 million square feet of new space by 2025 just to keep up with...