Archives for 2013

The industrial sector is projected to lead commercial real estate in both investment and development potential in 2014, according to PWC/Urban Land Institute’s Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2014. The report aggregates perspectives from more than 1,000 commercial real estate industry professionals who participated in PWC/ULI’s annual survey
Healthy expansion of e-commerce distribution facilities will fuel growth in the warehouse subsector. Warehouses garnered the most interest from respondents with nearly 64 percent recommending to buy, and 27 percent recommending to hold these assets. Other subsectors such as self-storage, data centers, and research and development facilities are all expected to improve next year as well.
“Electronic retailing is impacting the whole distribution program,” says a logistics executive. “Facilities are being built to enable same-day delivery -– huge buildings, fulfillment centers in areas where we’ve never seen warehouses before.” (CCIM Institute)  Full story

Commercial practitioners are right to be frustrated, NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said at the REALTORS® Conference & Expo in San Franisco earlier this month.
“Commercial real estate was not the cause of the downturn,” Yun told attendees of the Commercial Economic Issues and Real Estate Trends Forum. “But it is commercial real estate that is suffering the collateral damage.”
Yun said most commercial sectors are recovering sluggishly, along with the overall economy. “The pace of expansion has been extremely frustrating,” he said. “We’ve created 7 million jobs in the past four years, but this is in the aftermath of 8 million job losses, so we are still in a hole.”
The unevenness of the recovery is not just geographic; there’s also a data disconnect. Yun said the middle class is not being included in the recovery, resulting in hard research that doesn’t match the feelings commonly expressed about the economy. “We have a very strange mind-set in America today. We have record high net worth, but most Americans will say things don’t feel right,” Yun said, adding that he sees those frustrations reflected in low consumer confidence.
That same malaise is affecting commercial real estate practitioners, too. Yun said that though transaction volume is up 27% year over year, he doesn’t see the data reflected in the 2013 Commercial Real Estate Lending Survey. Commercial deals topping $1 million began improving four years ago, while smaller transactions under the million-dollar mark just started turning around this year. (Daily Real Estate News)  Full Story

AudioPoint presentation outlining which top ten issues are affecting homeowners, real estate markets and the commercial industry in the future.
Click here to view AudioPoint presentation.
By: Scott Muldavin (National Association of REALTORS)

NAR’s Chief Economist, Lawrence Yun, discusses the 2013 economic activity and its impact upon the commercial real estate outlook, while Richard Whitsell, President and CEO of Fresno First Bank, discusses current banking trends and their impact upon commercial real estate.
NAR 2013 Commercial Economic Issues & Trends Forum Video