Most people today regard America’s experiment with alcohol prohibition as a national embarrassment, rightly repealed in 1933. So it will be with the closures and lockdowns of 2020, some day. In 1920, however, to be for the repeal of the prohibition that was passed took courage. You were arguing against prevailing opinion backed by celebratory […]
In the world of commercial real estate office leasing, the sublease market offers a less transparent subset of supply and demand that is difficult to track at best, and frustratingly illogical at worst. Because sublessors are in cost recovery mode, it is challenging to bring parties to the table and walk away with a win-win. […]
Along with air miles and an agenda, a passport was probably the least useful accessory of 2020. For those of us as familiar with business lounges as we were with sun loungers, this has been an unusual year. But the signs, for passports at least, are that they are back in popularity, and covid-19 is […]
During the last four years, the prospects for freer world trade have been in retreat. Now, with a new broom about to sweep into the White House, there is renewed hope for progress both in bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations. Financial markets have been focused on fiscal stimulus and the prospects for an effective covid-19 […]
Historically, political party control of the US government has not had much bearing on investment performance of commercial real estate. However, NCREIF data (since its 1978 inception) shows that Democratic administrations produced somewhat stronger 10.4% average total returns on US institutionally owned property, while Republican administrations produced 8.6%.1 With Democrats ushering in a victory on […]
A physical market cycle analysis of four property types across 54 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) for 3Q2020. The V-shaped recovery happened (-32% GDP in Q2 then +33% GDP in Q3) but only for a portion of the economy. Any business dependent upon consumer contact was down or flat at best. Add the flat line to […]
Sales of existing homes rose 4.3% in October to a 6.85 million seasonally adjusted annual rate. Sales are now up 26.6% from a year ago and are at their highest level since November 2005 (see top of first chart). Sales were up in all four regions in October: sales were up 1.4% in the West […]
Consumers won’t turn back from e-commerce now – so what do institutional investors need to know about the logistics property market? The influence of e-commerce on the daily life of many Americans became clear to me when my 92-year-old mother was able to identify what grocery items arrived at her home by the logo on […]
The brutal correction in NASDAQ last week did not spare such former tech sector darlings as cloud software, semiconductors and social media shares. The big daddy of social media is Facebook (symbol FB) and its shares were slammed by $19 on NASDAQ to $262 or $42 below its recent high. Even though Facebook beat the […]
The broad-based REIT indexes were relatively flat last week, which was in tandem with the broader based indices. But the biggest talking point has been the two recent activist campaigns launched on Ashford Hospitality Trust (AHT) by Cygnus Capital Inc. as well as Apartment Investment Management Company (AIV) by Land & Buildings LLC. Is AIV throwing […]
