What I'm Reading Behind the Scenes: Unless you live under a rock, you have probably heard about the massive short squeezes (and crashes) in troubled retailer GameStop and struggling theater operator AMC over the past couple of weeks. Both companies' stocks have soared but, despite the increases in valuation, both...
January 28th – Storm Clouds
What I'm Reading Storm Clouds: The apartment sector has been a bright spot during COVID-19 but that is starting to change. Enhanced eviction protection, lower rent collections and unprecedented declines in asking rent in some urban markets are taking their toll on apartment owners. During the pandemic, the share of...
January 27th – Long Road Back
What I'm Reading Long Road Back: COVID-19 has resulted in a near-total halt in business travel. Beyond the blows to airlines, hotels, travel agents and rental-car companies, the sharp drop in business travel is rippling through whole ecosystems of related commerce, including airport shops, downtown bars and restaurants, construction companies...
January 26th – Deep Hole
What I'm Reading Deep Hole: Nearly 20% of American renters are behind on payments. The typical delinquent renter now owes $5,600, being nearly four months behind on their monthly payment, includes utilities and late fees according to a new analysis from Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, and Jim...
January 21st – Misplaced Priorities
One Big Thing President Joe Biden comes into office with a housing plan that includes a $15,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit. IMO, encouraging first time homebuying is a worthy goal but doesn't really solve our current problem - not enough houses are getting built to satisfy existing demand, which would...
January 20th – Coming Into Focus
What I'm Reading Coming Into Focus: With COVID-19's resurgence, the early days of the Biden Administration will likely have a heavy focus on health and economic stabilization with an emphasis on infrastructure as well. As a result, it is less likely that proposals to narrow or eliminate 1031 exchanges will...
January 14th – Fire Sale?
What I'm Reading Sale of the Century? Some publicly traded REITs are taking advantage of their shares trading at a discount to net asset value and buying their own shares. The private market premium is pervasive and has sparked debate over whether REITs are undervalued, private markets are overvalued or somewhere...
January 13th – Digging Deeper
What I’m Reading Digging Deeper: Last week’s jobs report was ugly on the surface. However, if you look deeper past the temporary losses, it was actually fairly strong given the circumstances and reveals the underlying resilience of the economy. Tim Duy’s Fed Watch Inflection Point: With a vaccination-fueled economic turnaround expected to begin...
January 12th – Fallout
What I’m Reading Fallout: CoStar is estimating that the reckoning from COVID will eventually result in $126 billion of distressed real estate sales with a heavy concentration in lodging and retail. However, with an estimated $200 billion of capital raised to capitalize on such an opportunity, it is difficult to see...
January 11th – Wait and See
What I’m Reading Wait and See: NNN lease investors had assumed that Republicans would win the Georgia Senate special election and the 1031 exchange would be safe. Now that the Democratic party candidates have prevailed, those investors are anxiously awaiting President Elect Biden’s first 100 day agenda to see if the...