DID YOU KNOW?
Top Headlines: Delivered by Leonard Steinberg
August 15, 2023
01 Only 7 of the US’s 200 largest housing markets are back to pre-pandemic levels: Killeen-Temple, Texas; Lubbock, Texas; Kennewick-Richland, Wash.; Waco, Texas; Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, Texas; Huntsville, Ala.; and Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas.
(FORTUNE)
02 UPSTATE New York in the Hudson River Valley, in Newburgh, NY Tesla will lease a 927,000sf distribution facility for automotive parts. Tesla occupies more than 30 million square feet in the U.S! By comparison, WeWork occupies about 18.3 million square feet in the US.
03 The U.S. Treasury Department will soon propose a rule that would require real estate professionals such as title insurers to report the identities of the beneficial owners of companies buying real estate in cash to the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. This is aimed at ending anonymous luxury-home purchases, closing a loophole that the agency says allows corrupt oligarchs, terrorists and other criminals to hide ill-gotten gains.
(YAHOO)
04 Even Monaco is in the midst of creating new legislation to prevent real estate-related money laundering and financial corruption. (AIRMAIL)
05 Apartment-building values fell 14% for the year ended in June 2023...... after rising 25% the prior year, roughly the same as the fall in office values. Many owners took on big debt. Outstanding multifamily mortgages more than doubled over the past decade to about $2 trillion, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, nearly twice the amount of office debt.
Then again, everyone has to live somewhere and the 'work and live at office' trend has not happened as far as I know..... Maybe another example of how artificially fueled inflation can lead to.....deflation....or rebalancing? Asking rents rose 25% over 18 months spanning 2021 and 2022. Maybe some rental properties will convert to condos to fuel supply? (WSJ)
