Key Points: Technological advancements like DeepSeek may paradoxically increase overall data center demand despite improved efficiency. Constraints on data center supply include significant requirements for electricity and water, as well as specialized expertise for construction and operation. The strong, long-term demand drivers for data centers ...

Key Points: Approximately 1.1-1.6 percent of Los Angeles' housing stock may have already been demolished by the wildfires The wildfires have rapidly reduced the housing supply, destroying an estimated 17,000 to 24,000 housing units Rebuilding in Los Angeles will be challenging due to the city's difficult building environment and zoning ...

Key Points: Multifamily cap rates appear poised to decline for the first time in nearly two years. Using First American’s Multifamily Potential Cap Rate Model, we forecast that multifamily cap rates are likely to gradually decline throughout 2025. The return of declining cap rates would be a sign that buyers are becoming more comfortable with ...

Key Points: The recovery will not just be an interest rate story, but also a price story. As property prices stem declines and stabilize, transaction activity will gradually follow. In the refinance markets, this rebound appears to already be occurring. Distress in debt markets will take longer to work out and will likely last beyond 2025. The ...

Key Points: Retail spending is the life blood of retail commercial real estate and it is slowing in real, inflation-adjusted terms. When compared to pre-pandemic levels, retail rents have not fallen in any of the largest cities and have increased the most in locations with larger population growth. Despite some consumer headwinds, there is very ...

Key Points: Assumable debt accompanies a property at sale and can be one way to complete a transaction when other forms of credit are scarce or costly. Assumable is typically more attractive when outstanding interest rates on mortgages are lower than prevailing rates for new loans. Though assumable debt use is currently lower than in the years ...

Key Points: CRE refinance volume has declined from a post-pandemic peak but, despite higher interest rates, is stabilizing. Dollar volume of hotel refinancings is a bright spot but being driven by larger loan sizes rather than more refinance transactions, and growing hotel refinance sizes are being driven primarily by larger CMBS. Though CMBS ...

It’s been a challenging two and a half years for the commercial real estate (CRE) industry, but data points are gradually emerging that indicate we may be at or past a trough in market activity, at least for some asset classes. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) second quarter release of CRE lending activity showed that commercial loan ...

The last three and a half years have been a whipsaw of a ride for the multifamily market. Following the surge in leasing demand during the pandemic, demand to own apartment buildings boomed, which drove transaction volume to record highs. Shortly thereafter, the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates to combat inflation that turned out not ...

Retail properties have been a relative bright spot in a commercial real estate (CRE) market that’s otherwise been disrupted by higher interest rates. Though there are lots of different types of retail properties, they all share one thing in common: their success is driven in part by strong consumer retail spending. But, beyond the strength of the ...