Quote for Today:

“You said I was weak. You said I couldn’t do it. Thank you. You gave me everything I needed to prove you wrong.”

– Steve Prefontaine

(Source)

There’s some interesting – though perhaps not surprising – commercial real estate data coming out these days.

For instance, many hotels are being snapped up at very good prices and then converted into apartments. That’s not an easy switch to make, yet that’s the money-making trend these real estate investors are following.

No doubt (or at least hopefully), they’re aware that major tech hub cities saw double-digit declines in rental prices. That’s especially true in the Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, Santa Clara, and Boston areas.

Office buildings aren’t doing nearly as bad as hotels, collectively speaking. But that hardly means they’re operating at optimal capacity. Motley Fool’s MillionAcres might sum it up best when it mentions how:

“In 2019, law firms accounted for 5.9% of all U.S. office leases, according to CBRE. And in strong markets like Manhattan, they ranked fifth from the top for the largest office leases signed that year.

“But law firms haven’t exactly been rushing to re-sign leases. Quite the contrary – new leases in the legal sector have largely been put on hold, reports Cushman & Wakefield (CWK), and firms that are renewing are limiting themselves to short-term agreements. Meanwhile, those who are entering into longer-term leases are downsizing their office space by anywhere from 10% to 40%.”

Apparently, that last part is due to expectations of permanent layoffs. Cushman & Wakefield found in a recent survey that law firms are looking to let 15%-30% of their staff go soon enough.

Everyone needs to interpret that information as they see fit according to their personal risk assessments and financial positions, of course. For my part though, I’m still busily – and successfully – building up a beautiful REIT paradise in the middle of all this.

That dream hasn’t even come close to dying, despite the sobering news up above.

My reason for pointing this out, again, is so you’re in the know to make the most informed and therefore most successful decisions going forward. That means giving you the bad news as well as the good.

Speaking of the latter, I still have solid insider intelligence that has me continuing to hold strategic (sometimes speculative) positions in certain troubled sectors. And I’ll continue to provide that information as I can through my various channels.

To see what I mean, sign up for my daily e-mail updates right here, complete with my newest special report on a property sector with enormous potential…

The World According to Commercial Real Estate

In case you don’t believe my assertion up above that many REITs are still worth investing in, consider the following data powered by The Daily REITBeat. Here’s your regularly scheduled sneak peek:

• Scotiabank upgraded Kilroy Realty (KRC) from Sector Perform to Sector Outperform and raised its price target by $10 to $67.
• Compass Point upgraded Regency Centers (REG) from Neutral to Buy and raised its price target by $4 to $54.
• Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR) closed on a 295,000 square-foot industrial property in Alachua, Florida, and signed a long-term, triple-net lease there with a subsidiary of Harvest Health & Recreation to run a cannabis cultivation and processing facility.

(The Daily REITBeat)

In other news, I just read a research report by Nareit that said “the percentage of American households with REIT stocks has nearly doubled from 23% to 44% through the last two decades.”

It added that “roughly 65 million Americans owned REIT shares in 2001. This more than doubled to nearly 145 million” in 2019. And that figure “also nearly doubled from 23% to 44% through the last two decades.” 

(Nareit)

That’s an incredible statistic – and even more, reason to get involved and stay involved yourself.