Having a large backlog of infrastructure projects is usually a good thing. But as state budgets have been roiled by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative that construction businesses review potential road, highway and civil jobs with an eye toward financial trouble spots. Bond issues around the country have soured amid the coronavirus pandemic, as ... READ MORE >
Real Estate
Real estate and the middle market go hand in hand. Developers in commercial, residential and industrial markets provide the economic fuel to transform local economies, building infrastructure that leads to new business and job creation.
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. The plunge extended to permits to build, which dropped to an annualized rate of 1,074,000, representing a 20.8% decline. Many hoped that the designation of residential ... READ MORE >
Is brick and mortar dead? This time, we’re talking about office buildings.
As the human toll of the coronavirus pandemic has mounted, companies have limited non-essential business travel and told employees to work from home. The effect on cities has been profound, and unsettling, with a cityscape characterized by empty office buildings, quiet streets and shuttered stores. Now, as many middle market companies have shown that ... READ MORE >
A bright spot amid the economic wreckage of coronavirus: apartment rental payments
While many businesses remain closed and the country experiences record levels of unemployment, apartment owners can take some solace that tenants are still making their rent payments. On Friday, the National Multifamily Housing Council released its Rent Payment Tracker, and reported that 80.2% of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment as ... READ MORE >
For real estate companies, the new Paycheck Protection Program funding is not a cure-all
It took about two weeks for the $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program, a federal aid package aimed at shoring up small and medium-size businesses, to run out of money after it was launched on April 3. Now, the Senate has approved another $310 billion for the program. The new round of financing is part of a broader $484 billion package passed on ... 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. For comparison, existing home sales in March 2019 were 5.23 million as interest rates were rising and affordability was a ... 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. The National Association of Home Builders’ monthly confidence index was in free fall in April, plunging 42 points month over month to a rating of 30 – the largest decline ever in the 30 ... READ MORE >
With lifeline from Paycheck Protection Program cut short, real estate turns to bankers for liquidity
The Paycheck Protection Program, a $350 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. "At the present run-rate, we're going to be out of money," Lawrence Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, said on ... 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, a disproportionate amount of loans taken under a new SBA lending relief program and a downturn in demand. Many states have shut down all but essential services over the past three weeks as ... READ MORE >
How the real estate sector can weather an economy that has all but ground to a halt
In the real estate industry, the first of the month holds a certain significance – after all, it’s when rent payments are due. But this April 1 is quite different, coming amid the steep economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Landlords are girding for the very real prospect that the $81 billion owed to them in rent payments, according to ... READ MORE >