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.
CRE X-Factor – Lower Prospective CRE Returns Contribute to Depressed Transaction Volume
By
Xander Snyder on November 13, 2023
The recent rise in long-term interest rates suppresses commercial real estate (CRE) transaction volume in two primary ways. First, higher long-term interest rates typically lead to higher CRE mortgage rates, which make CRE deals less profitable. Lower prospective returns on CRE deals incentivize buyers to wait on the sidelines until prices fall ...
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Debt Maturities Driving Involuntary Sales Will Set the Pace of Price Discovery
By
Xander Snyder on November 7, 2023
The primary driver of suppressed transaction volume in today’s commercial real estate (CRE) market is the gap in price expectations between prospective buyers and sellers. Falling prices and rising cap rates make buyers hesitant to jump into the market, since a better deal might be waiting in the near future. On the other side of the table, owners ...
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Pandemic Aftershocks Drive Industrial Cap Rates Higher
By
Xander Snyder on October 19, 2023
The state of today’s industrial commercial real estate (CRE) can largely be explained as the result of pandemic-related aftershocks. During the pandemic, e-commerce sales soared as millions of stuck-at-home consumers turned to online retailers to purchase goods. Meanwhile, COVID-19 disrupted global supply chains, which made it more difficult for ...
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CRE X-Factor - Consumers Face Headwinds Heading into 2024
By
Xander Snyder on October 13, 2023
As pandemic-era restrictions and precautions eased, consumers began to spend the money that they had saved during the early parts of the pandemic. The resulting surge in consumer spending contributed, at least in part, to the runaway inflation that eventually triggered the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates at the fastest pace in decades. ...
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What’s the ‘Real’ Story Behind the Strength of the U.S. Consumer?
By
Xander Snyder on October 9, 2023
In mid-September, coverage of the Census Bureaus’ latest monthly retail sales release focused on how the 2.5 percent year-over-year increase in retail sales in August was a sign of ongoing consumer strength. But the retail sales report is not inflation adjusted, it is expressed in nominal terms. This nominal 2.5 percent growth, therefore, excludes ...
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CRE X-Factor – The End of the Beginning for the CRE Adjustment?
By
Xander Snyder on September 15, 2023
With interest rates high, transaction volumes low, and property prices generally on the decline, it’s safe to say that the commercial real estate (CRE) market is undergoing an adjustment period. The market adjustment has triggered a process referred to as “price discovery,” in which many buyers are sitting on the sidelines waiting for lower entry ...
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Banks Continue to Report Tighter Lending Standards for CRE
By
Xander Snyder on September 5, 2023
With interest rates well above recent lows and commercial property prices declining, commercial real estate (CRE) credit remains tight. How tight, exactly, is one of the questions that the Federal Reserve’s Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey (SLOOS) attempts to answer.
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CRE X-Factor – Why Operating Costs for Commercial Properties have Soared
By
Xander Snyder on August 10, 2023
As rent growth has softened across all asset classes, property owners and operators have increased their focus on limiting expense growth. However, this has proven difficult for some line items, as both property insurance, and repairs and maintenance (R&M) expenses have increased significantly over the last three years. In this edition of the ...
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What Happens to Cap Rates if…
By
Xander Snyder on August 7, 2023
Multifamily capitalization (cap) rates have now increased for three consecutive quarters, the first time since the Great Financial Crisis. This is a sign that investors are requiring higher yields today in order to purchase a property.
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Buyers Have the Upper Hand in the Multifamily Market
By
Xander Snyder on July 21, 2023
When you purchase an apartment building as an investment, you’re generally planning to profit through the rent it generates and through price growth of the building over time. When prices are falling, as they are today, investors are less able to reliably predict where prices will end up during an investment’s lifetime. To offset this increased ...
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