Shopping Centers in Survival Mode
So much about home prices, what about investments in shopping centers?
The research firm Green Street Advisors says real estate investment trusts that own strip shopping centers are taking a beating as consumers cut back on spending this holiday season. As aresult the shopping center operators have cut their own spending for development and acquisitions and focused just on keeping their centers leased. To do that they’ve been offering rent relief or concessions to struggling tenants, particularly smaller mom and pop owned stores.
The firm figures occupancy rates will drop to about what mall owners saw in Texas during the 1980s bust. If you're looking for investment advice, Green Street says buy Federal Realty and Regency Centers. Sell Equity One and Kimco Realty.
Home sales, prices in deep plunge
The number of existing homes sold during November plummeted 8.6% as prices plunged by record amounts, according to a closely watched housing industry report issued Tuesday.Military Base Housing Ain’t What it Used to Be
My friend Bill is always complaining that he should have stayed in the Army. He would have had such a better life, cared for by the government, he says. Now in his 40s, he lives in his parents home again in Boston. Then I got the notice from a company called Balfour Beatty Communities, a private sector company which manages residential units on military bases. That's one of their properites in Fort Eustis, Virginia above and Jacksonville below. Wow!
Expanded construction budgets have greatly improved family housing at many military bases, the press release read. It went on: At Marne Point, a garden-style apartment community that will be Balfour Beatty's first apartment complex to provide military housing for single soldiers, the $37 million complex feature private bedrooms and baths, full kitchens, and living rooms. Every apartment has a private entranceway, and is equipped with a walk-in storage closet and washer and dryer. Nine-foot ceilings provide an open, airy feel. Marne Point will also include a community and recreation center with a clubhouse, full basketball court, heated pool, car wash station, and running trails.
Maybe my friend Bill was right.
Clark Opens Pioneering Military Singles Property in San Diego
At Naval Base San Diego, Clark Realty Capital and the Department of the Navy opened the doors of Pacific Beacon (pictured), the first of three 18-story luxury apartment buildings in the country's first large-scale housing privatization initiative for unmarried military personnel.GenCorp’s Mixed-Use Project Takes Next Big Steps
Sacramento County’s supervisory board has unanimously approved the final environmental impact report for GenCorp Inc.’s 1,400-acre mixed-use project and amendments to the county’s general plan for the project.KBS REIT II Nabs San Jose Office for $35M
KBS REIT II has acquired a 142,000-square-foot office building in San Jose, Calif., for $35.7 million. The property, located at 350 East Plumeria Dr., is fully-leased to Netgear Inc., a designer and developer of networking software, which houses its headquarters in the building.Hope Now ramps up foreclosure-prevention
Some 2.2 million at-risk homeowners will receive foreclosure-prevention help this year, according to an industry report issued Monday, with the number expected to rise to more than 3 million in 2009.New Home Starts Worst Since World War II
Ratings agency Standard & Poors has more bad news for homebuilders. The firm expects their results to keep deteriorating and has 18 of the 22 companies it follows on watch for possible downgrades. Three others are in default. Only one, NVR, has a stable outlook.
New home deliveries for the group fell 33% in November. The average sale price fell 9% to $273,000.
“We believe that new housing starts may bottom out this quarter at their lowest levels since the end of World War II, but that excess supply and weaker demand will continue to push prices down through the middle of next year,” analyst James Fielding says.
If you want to brighten somebody’s holiday, visit a new home showroom.
Report: Manhattan Trophy Offices Lose Some Luster
Weakening economic conditions in Manhattan’s office sector have begun impacting average asking rents for the city’s trophy-quality office buildings.The Moment We’ve All Been Waiting For
An article from the January edition of Reason Magazine caught my eye the other day. It shows just how far out of whack home prices had gotten. Editor Tim Cavanaugh writes that “Comparing data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Association of Realtors, a house today costs four times your annual salary. Ten years ago it cost only three times as much. In 1988 it cost twice as much; in 1978, less than twice as much."
The day before I read that I had got an email from Rob Jenson, a Realtor in Las Vegas whom I've found is very honest about the crummy state of the market. His email was titled "The moment we've all been waiting for," and it went on to say "You can finally buy investment properties and get a Positive Return on Invesment!"
He didn't elaborate on the math but I'm sure he's right. Prices in Vegas have finally fallen to the point we're buying actually makes financial sense.