Sales of new homes continue to soar, increasing by 13.9% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 901,000 for the month of July, and up 36.3% from the same period a year earlier, according to data released this week from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. New home sales are up 8% year over year. … READ MORE >
An SOS for commercial real estate
As the length and severity of the coronavirus pandemic continue wreak havoc on the economy, real estate deals are at best being reworked and at worst falling apart altogether. … READ MORE >
Real estate investors seen as primary funding source for “the caring economy” plan
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled a 10-year, $775-billion plan to support what he deemed “the caring economy,” which is comprised of jobs that provide care for children and the elderly. In order to finance this proposal, Biden is looking to the real estate investment community. … READ MORE >
Miles away: U.S. airports face heavy lift and slow recovery
The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting shelter-in-place protocols have devastated the airline industry. Along with it, airports across the country, rife with retail, have suffered significant losses.
As cancellations of business trips and vacations mounted beginning with the onset of the outbreak in mid-March, traffic from travelers plummeted. The Transportation Safety Administration reported that throughput fell to approximately 100,000 people per day by the first week of April, down from almost 2.2 million daily a month earlier. … READ MORE >
Home construction collapses under coronavirus lockdown
Housing starts plummeted 30.5% to an annualized rate of 891,000 in April as the full weight of the coronavirus lockdowns hit the sector, the Commerce Department reported on Tuesday. … READ MORE >
Is brick and mortar dead? This time, we’re talking about office buildings.
As many middle market companies have shown that they can shift from a traditional brick-and-mortar setting to a virtual one, office building tenants, and landlords, are rethinking the need for offices in the future — and the related fixed costs they bring. … READ MORE >
Existing home sales declined 8.5% in March as headwinds grew
Existing home sales fell to 5.27 million in March, down 8.5% from the 12-month high set in February of 5.76 million. While most economists expected a decline as the economic toll of the coronavirus set in, March was still a strong month. … READ MORE >
Housing market follows the severe contraction of the broader economy
The residential construction and home improvement industries, which were so promising heading into 2020, now will be among those sectors hardest hit by the coronavirus. … READ MORE >
With lifeline from Paycheck Protection Program cut short, real estate turns to bankers for liquidity
The Paycheck Protection Program, a $349 billion government effort to help small and medium-size businesses weather the coronavirus pandemic, is hitting its funding limit less than two weeks after it was launched on April 3. Now, real estate companies are looking to banks and the private sector for relief. … READ MORE >
Construction sector uncertainty shows up in labor, loans and demand data
Slow and uncertain—that is the state of the construction ecosystem right now. The unstable environment for builders has resulted in huge layoffs for their workforce and a disproportionate amount of loans taken under a new SBA lending relief program. … READ MORE >