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 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 27th -The Great Migration
What I'm Reading The Churn: California is undergoing a major population shift, with coastal residents relocating to more inland locations in search of more space and a lower cost of living. Washington Post Its Time: Americans overwhelmingly believe that marijuana should be legal for recreational or medical use in the...
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 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 22nd – Sleight of Hand
What I'm Reading Sleight of Hand: WeWork is once again attempting to go public, this time via SPAC merger. However, the co-working company's aggressive projections and unconventional financial metrics are once again raising investor concerns about its viability. Globe Street More of the Same: When it comes to people moving during...
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 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...