Recent Posts by Xander Snyder

Xander Snyder is the senior commercial real estate economist for First American Financial Corporation, the premier provider of title, settlement and risk solutions for real estate transactions and the leader in the digital transformation of its industry. In his role, he provides analysis, commentary and forecasts on commercial real estate trends. Snyder's research focuses on economic trends impacting commercial real estate, such as demographics, fundraising, investment, and commercial lending. He monitors, analyzes and reports on economic data and surveys related to commercial real estate, and develops models and forecasts to better understand the forces that influence commercial real estate markets. Before joining First American, Snyder developed data-driven models to guide real estate investment strategies, co-founded a proptech startup, and worked as a global risk analyst analyzing geopolitical risk around the world and consulting international companies on supply chain risk. Snyder graduated from Cornell University with a double degree in economics and classical music composition, earning the title of Summa Cum Laude. He is currently completing a master's degree in data science from UC Berkeley. Snyder, a native Angeleno, lives and works in Los Angeles.
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CRE X-Factor: The Commercial Real Estate Refinancing Market is Stabilizing

By Xander Snyder on October 2, 2024
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 ... Read More

Commercial Real Estate Refinance

The Commercial Real Estate Metric Signaling Confidence is Returning to the Market

By Xander Snyder on September 4, 2024
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 ... Read More

Commercial Real Estate Commercial Lender

Have Multifamily Cap Rates Peaked?

By Xander Snyder on August 23, 2024
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 ... Read More

Commercial Real Estate multifamily market Potential Cap Rate Model Multifamily

CRE X-Factor - Why Retail Real Estate Has Overcome the “Death of the Mall”

By Xander Snyder on August 6, 2024
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 ... Read More

Commercial Real Estate retail

The Great Office Downsizing Isn’t Over

By Xander Snyder on July 11, 2024
It’s no secret that office properties are, on average, struggling more than other property types. With tenants requiring less office space than they did only a few years ago, office prices are down by approximately 50 percent in urban locations, compared to pre-pandemic levels. The main driver behind this trend is now a familiar story – remote ... Read More

Commercial Real Estate Office

CRE X-Factor - How Deep Will Office Demand Contraction Get?

By Xander Snyder on June 28, 2024
The rapid and broad adoption of remote work spurred by the pandemic allowed people to work in residential space, instead of office space, at a scale unimaginable just a few years ago. This dramatically reduced the demand for office space, with particularly steep contractions in some markets. While the final depth of this demand contraction remains ... Read More

Commercial Real Estate Office

The Geometry of Apartment Prices: When Down Is Still Up

By Xander Snyder on June 17, 2024
There weren’t many apartment units purchased in the first quarter of this year. In fact, purchases of multifamily properties dropped to the lowest levels observed since the early days of the pandemic four years ago. One clear contributor to this decline is the increased cost of capital – interest rates are considerably higher than they were ... Read More

Commercial Real Estate multifamily market Multifamily

CRE X-Factor - Multifamily Transaction Volume is Down, but is there a Hidden Urbanization Trend?

By Xander Snyder on June 3, 2024
Multifamily transaction volume in the first quarter of 2024 hit the lowest levels observed since the early days of pandemic quarantines. In a recent blog post, we analyzed what types of units were trading in terms of unit quality – that is, Class A, B or C [1]. In this X-Factor, we’ll examine multifamily transaction volume, but from different ... Read More

Commercial Real Estate

What’s that Apartment Building Worth? Fewer Multifamily Transactions Drive Market Uncertainty

By Xander Snyder on May 15, 2024
It’s hard to know what apartment buildings are worth nowadays. With multifamily transaction volume at its lowest point in four years, comparable transactions, or “comps”, which are often used as a reference point to estimate value, are few and far between. The limited availability of comps increases the uncertainty of property valuation estimates. ... Read More

Commercial Real Estate multifamily market Potential Cap Rate Model Multifamily

Analyzing CRE Transaction Volume – Retail a Relative Bright Spot in Bleak Q1

By Xander Snyder on April 30, 2024
Commercial Real Estate (CRE) transaction volume is usually measured in terms of nominal dollars. “Nominal” just means that these dollars aren’t inflation adjusted. Of course, inflation surged to levels not seen since the early 1980s in 2022. But standard inflation adjustments leave something to be desired in the case of CRE transaction volume, as ... Read More

Commercial Real Estate

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