mcarristo

State and Metro Employment Conditions

January 8, 2014 by mcarristo

In each Economic Update, the Research staff analyzes recently released economic indicators and addresses what these indicators mean for REALTORS® and their clients. Today’s update discusses the latest in employment conditions.

The national economy continues to heal and move ahead. A total of 7.5 million net new jobs have been added in the past 4 years following the disastrous 8 million net job cuts during the Great Recession. In the past 12 months, 2.3 million net new jobs have been added, representing a growth rate of 1.7 percent for the country as a whole.
Some states and metro markets are doing much better than the national job growth rate while others are faring much worse. North Dakota continues to shine due principally to massive new oil and gas production. The southern states of Texas, Florida, and Georgia have robust job growth. Alabama and D.C. (just the city proper and not the suburbs) are stalled with net zero job creation. Alaska lost some jobs. Puerto Rico is under tremendous stress with 4.3 percent fewer jobs, portending a possible government bankruptcy like one experienced in Detroit.
Among the metro markets, several small Florida markets are on fire (Sebastian-Vero Beach growing at +8.1%; Naples +7.9%; and Port St. Lucie +6.1%). The energy cities of Odessa and Midland are also moving fast with a 5% growth rate. Among the large cities, there are three standouts: Tampa-St. Petersburg (+3.3%), Houston (+3.1%), and Nashville (+3.1%).
The table below shows the ranking of states and U.S. territories:

By: Lawrence Yun (Economist’s Outlook)

Click here for source article.

January 2014 CCIM Properties

January 8, 2014 by mcarristo

Thanks to all of the brokers, sponsors and guests who attended the January CCIM Deal Making Session. More than 20 million dollars of commercial real estate properties available for sale were presented from all over New Mexico.

1.	Martha Carpenter	4511 Osuna Rd. NE	$3,900,000
2.	Tom Jenkins	2101 Mountain Rd. NW	Not Disclosed
3.	Jeff Rose	207 Candelaria Rd. NW	$695,000
4.	Max Sklower & Sylvan Steinlauf	6310 Jefferson St. NE	$549,000
5.	John Henderson	701 Comanche Rd. NE	$5,100,000
6.	Coralee Quintana	480 Rio Communities (Belen)	$419,000
7.	Todd Clarke	715 8th St. NW	$495,000
8.	John Henderson	301 Eubank Blvd. SE	$1,100,000
9.	John Henderson	500 Copper Ave. NW	$2,900,000
10.	Dave Hill and Shelly Branscom	2401 Cabezon Blvd. SE	$127/SF/YR
11.	Tim MacEachen & Tom Franchini	2600 Karsten Ct. SE	$1,300,000
12.	Chuck Sheldon	316/320 Espanola St. NE	$375,000

New Higher Education Center Construction Begins in January

January 4, 2014 by mcarristo

In January, Santa Fe Community College and the construction firm McCarthy New Mexico begin work on the college’s Higher Education Center. The 34,000-square-foot building is being developed on approximately 5 acres at the southeast corner of the old College of Santa Fe property, at the corner of Yucca Street and Siringo Road.
“It is across the street from Santa Fe High School and we will be doing some dual-credit programs in the daytime, it will be heavily used by our higher-education partners in the evening, and we’ll have some regular Santa Fe Community College classes there,” said Randy Grissom, acting SFCC president.

“It provides a closer location for the state employees downtown to take lunchtime classes. And in the two flex labs we hope to be doing medical-related training for the hospital just down the street. We’ll probably be doing some American Heart Association-type training and some emergency medical training, continuing education for hospital employees.”

The Santa Fe Community College Higher Education Center (HEC) was launched in 2011. In partnership with New Mexico Highlands University, the Institute of American Indian Arts, New Mexico State University, and the University of New Mexico, it gives students the option of earning a bachelor’s or master’s degree without leaving Santa Fe.

The new HEC building is a U-shaped building around a courtyard. It will include 15 classrooms and two flexible lab spaces — all two-story except over the flex labs. “The flex-lab rooms are 900-square-foot spaces and can be closed off for use on weekends, said Henry Mignardot, SFCC director of facilities.

The HEC will use energy-efficient heating and cooling via a ground-source heat pump. The project includes a 175-kilowatt, rooftop photovoltaic system, plus an additional four panels in the parking lot that may be used for instruction purposes.

“This facility will most likely be LEED Gold-certified, so we have continuous insulation; it’s like a big Igloo cooler,” said Matthew McKim, principal, Dekker Perich Sabatini Architects. “It’s steel-frame, mostly EFIS [exterior insulation and finishing system], and it has a very robust infrastructure for wifi.

“One space that’s kind of interesting we’re calling the collaborative learning lab. You enter from exterior doors or from the courtyard and it’s a big socializing space, where you can get computers and use wifi.”

The learning lab will have furniture that can easily be moved and stored, so will also function for lectures and other events.

“There’s a lot of natural light, so when you walk into the collaborative learning lab, you’ll be able to look through the transparent building into the courtyard. We’re trying to blur the inside-outside,” McKim said. “As far as the shading, we’re trying to do something that’s very New Mexican, using the building itself. The U-shaped windows — which have been used at the college, so it’s kind of part of the SFCC brand — are inset in the double-studded walls that will be up to 3 1/2 feet thick on the west side.”

The college will employ a money-saving “hoteling” strategy at HEC, where many faculty members will use immediate, temporary work stations rather than having their own desks. The overall idea is a building that is efficient and flexible.

Among the previous Santa Fe projects of the Albuquerque-based Dekker Perich Sabatini firm are 48 units of student housing for the College of Santa Fe (now Santa Fe University of Art & Design), Plaza Santa Fe Phase II, the Thornburg Investment Management office building, the Zocalo condominiums, and the Bicycle Technologies International building near SFCC.

The college and McCarthy will begin work on the $9 million HEC building this month and is planning for substantial completion in January 2015.
By: Paul Weideman (The Santa Fe New Mexican)

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SEC Deregulation for Commercial Real Estate Investments

January 3, 2014 by mcarristo

As mentioned in these pages last year (“Realty Mogul Reaches $10 Million Crowdfunding Benchmark”), recent SEC deregulation has cleared the way for commercial real estate investments to seek capital from individual investors with fewer requirements than before. Add the internet to this new playing field and you get crowdsourcing of real estate investment: where property-based offers are thrown open to anybody with a web browser (and sufficient capital).
Among the early wave of startup companies in the crowdsourced real estate investment business is Realty Mogul. If this startup is any indication, it appears the new crowdfunding sector is getting off the ground: the company has announced $10 million in property acquisitions totaling 27 properties.
The properties include multifamily, retail centers and storage facilities. As reported by Globe St.’s Kelsi Maree Borland, one thing that characterizes each of the portfolio’s properties is cash flow:
“Our early success confirms that people are frustrated with the low returns offered by banks and are looking for alternative ways to invest,” says Realty Mogul co-founder and CEO Jilliene Helman. The company has invested in multifamily properties, retail centers and storage facilities with cash flow, offering investors a quick return on their investment.
The web-based platform simplifies the investment process. Participants can do everything through the website from browsing opportunities to viewing transaction details and signing legal documents. “We’ve made it easy to participate in real estate investing via the Internet by creating a fantastic user experience,” says Helman. “Crowdfunding is going to revolutionize capital formation in real estate. It is here to stay.”
These thoughts are echoed by the SEC who unanimously voted in October to approve Title III crowdfunding proposed rules that allow businesses or investor groups to participate in securities-based crowdfunding. That means that unaccredited investors could make private investments, something that has been banned for 80 years.”
By: Wayne Grohl (The Source by NAR)
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