Each Wednesday, The Wrap presents a compilation of recent noteworthy commercial real estate stories from a variety of publications. Below are links to five stories that caught our eyes in recent days:
Apartment investors flooding Atlanta from pricey gateway cities, By Jarred Schenke, Bisnow
Key Excerpt:
“Cities like Atlanta, while taking longer to recover, are now showing job growth and rent growth across real estate asset classes, making them targets for investors both domestic and foreign. Atlanta’s apartment fundamentals should continue to hold up this year, according to Marcus & Millichap. In a recent report, the firm’s researchers wrote apartment vacancies should rival those levels seen in 2006, which were around 4.5 percent, despite rising supply.”
Global real estate industry reacts to U.S. Fed’s first rate hike in 2017, By Michael Gerrity, World Property Journal
Key Excerpt:
“JLL says that investors in Asia Pacific commercial real estate have long expected the US Fed to raise rates by 0.25 percent on March 15, 2017, following a hike of similar magnitude last December. US President Trump’s intended stimulus will likely encourage the Fed to accelerate the pace of monetary policy normalization, even though the fiscal stimulus will not be passed by Congress until the start of next year. Market consensus is for at least three rate hikes this year, taking the Fed funds rate to between 1.5 percent and 1.75 percent by end-2017.”
Bid-Ask gap grows in the apartment sector, By Bendix Anderson, NREIOnline.com
Key Excerpt:
“Far fewer deals closed in the apartment sector in both January and February compared to the year before. Buyers increasingly want higher yields on their investments. Sellers still insist on the high prices they believe their properties are worth and many are willing to refuse to sell rather than accept a lower bid. Meanwhile, at least a few investors are still willing to pay those high prices, which continue to rise on average for the shrinking number of deals that make it to the closing table.”
Office properties drove CMBS delinquency higher in February, NREIOnline.com
Key Excerpt:
“The overall delinquency rate for U.S. CMBS loans climbed by 13 basis points in February month-over-month, to reach 5.31 percent, according to a recent report from research firm Trepp LLC. The rate is the highest the firm recorded in 18 months.”
BeltLine seeks study for redevelopment of University Avenue Corridor, By Douglas Sams, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Key Excerpt:
“The study area would also include the more than 30-acre Annie E. Casey Foundation site in the Pittsburgh neighborhood, one of several neighborhoods around Turner Field poised for more investment and development.”