- First Reading on First Quarter GDP Up 2.3%, vs. 2.0% Growth Expected “The U.S. economy slowed in the first quarter as consumer spending grew at its weakest pace in nearly five years, but the setback is likely temporary against the backdrop of a tightening labor market and large fiscal stimulus. Gross domestic product increased at a 2.3 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said in its snapshot of first-quarter GDP on Friday, also held back by a moderation in business spending on equipment and investment in home building.” (CNBC)
- Real Estate Stocks Are on Sale, But No One Is Buying “Investors hate real estate, and investors love real estate. Both statements are true right now, creating one of the oddest dichotomies in markets. More specifically, investors hate real estate investment trusts, which have lagged behind the S&P 500 by more than 15 percentage points over the past 12 months. REITs on average are trading a 16.4% discount to the assets they own, one of the widest gaps that has ever occurred outside of a recession, according to Green Street Advisors.” (Wall Street Journal, subscription required)
- The Best (And Worst) Cities to Make Money on Airbnb “Airbnb has provided an extraordinary opportunity for thousands of entrepreneurial homeowners to monetize their property—whether it has been renting out a room or the entire house. In some locations property owners have even garnered enough profits to cover their monthly mortgage and then some. If you’ve been wondering if you should buy a second property or rent out the home that you already have but are unsure of what kind of profit you could make the folks at Homes.com have done the research for you by breaking out the math.” (Forbes)
- As Amazon Bid Details Kept from Public View, Protesters Rally to Demand More Information “P4 and HQ2 don’t add up to a winning equation. At least that was the message delivered by a group that rallied outside Downtown’s David L. Lawrence Convention Center Thursday to voice concerns about the impact that online retailer Amazon’s second headquarters, or HQ2, could have on Pittsburgh — and to urge the region’s political and civic leadership to come clean about what’s being offered to secure it.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
- Millennial Homeownership Suddenly Drops After a Good Run “Homeownership was crawling slowly back from its record low two years ago, but it just stalled, and the youngest homebuyers are behind that. Millennials had been driving the nation's overall homeownership rate, showing the biggest gains throughout 2017, but they dropped back in the first quarter of this year. Millennial homeownership fell from a three-year high of 36 percent in the fourth quarter of last year back to 35.3 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to the U.S. Census.” (CNBC)
- Abercrombie & Fitch Proves Mall Retailers Can Survive in Age of Amazon “It's not easy being a mall-based retailer in the age of Action Alerts PLUS holding Amazon. Yet, Abercrombie & Fitch is managing to chart its comeback despite the watchful eye of Amazon. TheStreet talks with Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Fran Horowitz about the brand's revival.” (The Street)
- Golf’s $9 Billion Real Estate Market Is on the Upswing: See Where and Why “Golf is at the heart of Red Ledges in Heber City, Utah, with an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus-designed course and a 12-hole, par-3 Nicklaus Signature “golf park” in the private Rocky Mountain community about 25 minutes from Salt Lake City. The community is coming off a record sales year in 2017, with 150 closings and about $64 million in sales volume. After it took close to nine years to get the first 100 homes built and sold at Red Ledges, there have now been approximately 550 sales the past few years and more than 100 more homes are in the construction or design process.” (Forbes)
- City Advances Plan to Stop Hotel Development in Industrial Zones “The city has begun moving forward on a zoning change that would make it more difficult for developers to build hotel projects on land zoned for manufacturing. On Monday the City Planning Commission began the months-long public review process for legislation, endorsed by City Hall, that would require hotels to seek a special permit in those industrial areas. The measure has received criticism from some planning experts who see it as a sweeping effort to rein in hotel construction at a time when tourism reaches a record high every year.” (Crain’s New York Business)
- City Denies Bangor Mall’s Request for $32M Property Tax Break “The Bangor Mall took another hit Thursday as the city assessor denied the mall owner’s request for a tax break for last fiscal year. ‘I have denied their appeal [for the abatement],’ Bangor City Assessor Phil Drew said. ‘They will have 60 days to appeal my decision to the Board of Assessment Review.’ Drew denied 10 appeals for tax breaks on the 10 properties comprising the mall, owned by Simon Property of Indianapolis.” (Bangor Daily News)
- Meet the Offbeat Developer Looking to Reinvent Times Square “Before Maefield Development and a group of partners could start on their mixed-use megaproject branded as 20 Times Square, they had to defuse a ticking time bomb. A handful of longstanding tenants occupied an L-shaped office building from the early 1900s, which was emblazoned with a big ‘Phantom of the Opera’ sign. And the 11-story property at 701 Seventh Avenue would need to be completely vacated before the deed changed hands.” (The Real Deal)
0 comments
Hide comments