Commercial Real Estate & Business News – June 30, 2015

Economy Watch: Should We Be Optimistic About the Economy?

There’s a fair amount of evidence now that the U.S. economy’s going to see a second-quarter rebound. For one thing—and it’s pretty much the bedrock of everything else—the economy’s been creating jobs robustly for two months now (the employment numbers for the third month of the quarter, June, will be out on Thursday, ahead of the Independence Day holiday). Also, consumer spending is up; new and existing home sales are up; and now consumer sentiment is up a fair amount as well, according to the University of Michigan. Its Index of Consumer Sentiment came in at 96.1 for June, up from 90.7 a month ago, and 82.5 a year ago—increases of 6 percent and 16.5 percent, respectively... Read more »

International Capital Now Involved in Nearly 20% of Total CRE U.S. Sales Volume

The gusher of foreign capital flowing into U.S. commercial real estate continues to surge. It has had such an impact on the market that even presidential hopefuls are referencing it in campaign stump speeches... Read more »

The Monday Morning Quarterback

The latest data available shows that the 1st quarter was not as weak as originally expected. Corporate profits, while declining, stayed strong. Personal income and consumer spending were also strong in May. Consumer confidence improved. In addition, single family home sales were up. In Arizona, lodging occupancy was up. Overall, it was not a bad week... Read more »

Apartment Sales Volume Surges 22% in May

After plummeting 37% year over year in April, apartment sales jumped 22% in May as the multifamily industry posted $9.1 billion in sales volume, according to New York-based commercial real estate data and analytics firm Real Capital Analytics (RCA). The garden sector led the growth with a 31% year-over-year sales volume increase to $6.4 billion in May. As cap rates have fallen on trophy high-rises, more investors are going further out for yield... Read more »

Retail Forecaster

Will online retail sales ever surpass those in brick-and-mortar stores? Under current conditions, that outcome is unlikely. In 2013, e-commerce was slightly less than 6.5 percent of retail sales (retail and food services sales, excluding automotive sales). It is important to recognize that retailing is the final step in distributing merchandise to consumers. In other words, retail is a logistics-based business.... Read more »