Texas & Oklahoma Feature Archive Archives - REBusinessOnline

Forecast Survey: What’s Your Take on Commercial Real Estate in 2026?

John Nelson — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 12:55:00 +0000

The editors of REBusinessOnline.com are conducting a brief online survey to gauge market conditions in 2026, and we welcome your participation. The survey should only take a few minutes to complete. Questions range from property sectors that you are most bullish on heading into 2026 to trends in deal volume to your outlook for interest rates. The results of our 15th annual survey will be compiled and published in the January issues of our regional magazines. Conducting these surveys is part of our mission at France Media to provide readers with indispensable information, and we couldn’t do it without your help. To participate in our broker/agent survey, click here. To participate in our developer/owner/manager survey, click here. To participate in our lender/financial intermediary survey, click here. (Note: Please remember to click on “done” to properly submit the survey.)

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Why Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Believe the Wind Is at Their Back

John Nelson — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 11:45:00 +0000

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are adopting a more pro-business approach when it comes to closing multifamily loans in 2025 than in recent years, when sources say they were more selective. The two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) combined to produce 33 percent more multifamily loans in first-quarter 2025 compared with first-quarter 2024. “There is definitely a ‘volume on’ mindset at both shops,” says Landon Litty, director of agency sales at BWE. “This is a real positive for borrowers.” For Fannie Mae, the volume of multifamily loans totaled $11.8 billion in the first quarter of 2025, compared with $10.1 billion in the first quarter of 2024. Meanwhile, Freddie Mac produced approximately $15 billion in multifamily loans in the first quarter, financing around 144,000 rental units, well above the approximately $10 billion produced in first-quarter 2024. “The first quarter of 2025 has been dynamic, with real-time adjustments to meet market needs while maintaining a focus on soundness,” says a spokesperson at Freddie Mac Multifamily. Other sources attest that the GSEs are focusing on their sponsors more so than in previous years. T.J. Edwards, chief production officer for the multifamily finance division at Walker & Dunlop, says the agencies are proactively vetting first-time borrowers…

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InterFace: Today’s Successful Student Housing Developments Pair Great Site Selection with Efficient Design

John Nelson — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 12:11:00 +0000

AUSTIN, TEXAS — It’s no secret that finding and entitling sites and procuring development financing has been challenging over the past few years. But Kevin Kazlow, director of capital markets with JLL, who moderated one of the development panels at this year’s InterFace Student Housing conference in Austin, Texas, believes there is lots to be excited about for the year ahead. Chief among them is the fact that the amount of capital allocated to alternative asset classes like student housing has doubled since 2018. “This group of panelists alone has a combined pipeline of about 40,000 beds under development, which is an incredibly impressive statistic and speaks to the continued demand for new student housing projects,” said Kazlow. Editor’s note: InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media Inc., produces networking and educational conferences for commercial real estate executives. To sign up for email announcements about specific events, visit www.interfaceconferencegroup.com/subscribe. The first step in the development process is securing a great site, which Brandt Stiles, principal with Subtext, considers part of his firm’s ‘secret sauce.’ “We have a really high expectation for our team to find super high barrier to entry, hard to entitle, fortress sites and for us, it’s all about being…

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Active Adult Sector Still in Early Stages of Its Evolution, Says CEO Panel

John Nelson — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 12:00:00 +0000

DALLAS — The evolution of active adult product is in the third inning of a nine-inning game, but some markets are clearly ahead of the curve, says Zach Crowe, managing director of U.S. real estate for private equity giant The Carlyle Group. “There are markets like Dallas, Las Vegas and Denver that have had active adult for 20 years at this point, and the product is well known. The consumer understands what it is. There are other markets with very few properties, and people have no idea what it is. It’s still incredibly early [in the game],” reports Crowe, who is based in Washington, D.C., and focuses on real estate investment opportunities in multifamily, 55+ housing and medical office properties. Editor’s note: InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media Inc., produces networking and educational conferences for commercial real estate executives. To sign up for email announcements about specific events, visit www.interfaceconferencegroup.com/subscribe. The insights from Crowe came during the CEO panel at the fifth annual InterFace Active Adult conference. The daylong conference, which took place May 7 at The Westin Los Colinas in Dallas, attracted more than 300 industry professionals. Moderated by Ryan Maconachy, vice chairman of health and alternative assets for Newmark, the…

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Forecast Survey: What’s Your Take on Commercial Real Estate in 2025?

John Nelson — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 12:45:00 +0000

The editors of REBusinessOnline.com are conducting a brief online survey to gauge market conditions in 2025, and we welcome your participation. The survey should only take a few minutes to complete. Questions range from property sectors that you are most bullish on heading into 2025 to trends in deal volume to your outlook for interest rates. The results of our 14th annual survey will be compiled and published in the January issues of our regional magazines. Conducting these surveys is part of our mission at France Media to provide readers with indispensable information, and we couldn’t do it without your help. To participate in our broker/agent survey, click here. To participate in our developer/owner/manager survey, click here. To participate in our lender/financial intermediary survey, click here. (Note: Please remember to click on “done” to properly submit the survey.)

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InterFace Student Housing ‘Power Panel’ Provides Optimistic Outlook for Year Ahead

John Nelson — Fri, 03 May 2024 11:24:00 +0000

AUSTIN, TEXAS — It’s no secret that today’s commercial real estate market can be challenging, whether you’re looking to break ground on a new project or close a transaction. But there’s plenty to be optimistic about in the student housing sector moving forward, according to Peter Katz, executive managing director of Institutional Property Advisors. Katz moderated this year’s “Power Panel,” which kicked off the first full day of the 16th annual InterFace Student Housing conference, held at the JW Marriott in Austin. The panel brought together a consortium of high-level executives to provide their thoughts on the current dynamics in the sector and their outlook for the year ahead. “I always feel the energy and the excitement in the student housing sector,” began Katz. “And while we feel a sense of tempered exuberance this year, the investment community is still extremely enthusiastic. Consumer strength is coming in hotter than expected and inflationary readings are pushing out the timing of proposed interest rate cuts from The Fed.” Two years into the cycle of tightening from The Fed, investors are recognizing that the price adjustments that have already occurred have now become an acquisition opportunity, Katz continued. “And while there’s still pain…

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Forecast Survey: What’s Your Take on Commercial Real Estate in 2024?

John Nelson — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 12:16:16 +0000

The editors of REBusinessOnline.com are conducting a brief online survey to gauge market conditions in 2024, and we welcome your participation. The survey should only take a few minutes to complete. Questions range from property sectors that you are most bullish on heading into 2024 to trends in deal volume to your outlook for interest rates. The results of our 13th annual survey will be compiled and published in the January issues of our regional magazines. Conducting these surveys is part of our mission at France Media to provide readers with indispensable information, and we couldn’t do it without your help. To participate in our broker/agent survey, click here. To participate in our developer/owner/manager survey, click here. To participate in our lender/financial intermediary survey, click here. (Note: Please remember to click on “done” to properly submit the survey.)

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Forecast Survey: What’s Your Take on Commercial Real Estate in 2023?

John Nelson — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 12:25:56 +0000

The editors of REBusinessOnline.com are conducting a brief online survey to gauge market conditions in 2023, and we welcome your participation. The survey should only take a few minutes to complete. Questions range from property sectors that you are most bullish on heading into 2023 to trends in deal volume to your outlook for interest rates. The results of our 12th annual survey will be collated and published in the January issues of our regional magazines. Conducting these surveys is part of our mission at France Media to provide readers with indispensable information, and we couldn’t do it without your help. To participate in our broker/agent survey, click here. To participate in our developer/owner/manager survey, click here. To participate in our lender/financial intermediary survey, click here. (Note: Please remember to click on “done” to properly submit the survey.)

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Three Keys for Shopping Center Owners to Remember When Protesting Property Tax Assessments

John Nelson — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 11:46:35 +0000

Property owners should receive a Notice of Appraised Value from their appraisal district by mid-April. This year, it is imperative that retail property owners submit an assessment protest prior to the deadline and help to establish fair taxable valuations in the post-pandemic marketplace. Since March 2020, COVID-19 has brought uncertainty and ongoing challenges to real estate owners. People often discuss the commercial real estate “winners and losers” of COVID-19, and of the four commercial real estate food groups, retail certainly suffered one of the heaviest initial blows. But how has the property type recovered as the pandemic has evolved? This article explores where exactly retail falls, and then offers strategies to argue more effectively for reduced assessments. Evolving trends To develop a full picture of the current state of shopping centers, one must look back to 2019 and early 2020 before the pandemic. In 2018, approximately 5,800 retail stores closed nationwide and only 3,200 opened, for an overall deficit of 2,600 locations. In 2019, the size of the annual store deficit nearly doubled with 5,000 more closures than openings. E-commerce sales volume rose steadily from 2010 through 2019, which, coupled with accelerating physical store closures, clearly indicate a slowdown in…

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Forecast Survey: What’s Your Take on Commercial Real Estate in 2022?

John Nelson — Thu, 18 Nov 2021 12:16:18 +0000

The editors of REBusinessOnline.com are conducting a brief online survey to gauge market conditions in 2022, and we welcome your participation. The survey should only take a few minutes to complete. Questions range from property sectors that you are most bullish on heading into 2022 to trends in deal volume to your outlook for interest rates. The results of our 11th annual survey will be collated and published in the January issues of our regional magazines. Conducting these surveys is part of our mission at France Media to provide readers with indispensable information, and we couldn’t do it without your help. To participate in our broker/agent survey, click here. To participate in our developer/owner/manager survey, click here. To participate in our lender/financial intermediary survey, click here. (Note: Please remember to click on “done” to properly submit the survey.)

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Lee & Associates Breaks Down Third-Quarter Economic Outlook by Sector

Sarah Daniels — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 12:49:34 +0000

The calculus for which asset classes are likeliest to demonstrate strong growth continues to shift as the pandemic appears to be receding. Patterns in labor shortages, supply chain issues and material costs have managed to solidify through the third quarter of 2021. Lee & Associates’ newly released Q3 2021 North America Market Report dissects third-quarter 2021 industrial, office, retail and multifamily findings, with a focus on where demand is moving and the challenges facing each asset class. Lee & Associates has made the full market report available at this link (with further breakdowns of factors like vacancy rates, market rents, inventory square footage and cap rates by city). Below is a bird’s-eye overview of four commercial real estate asset classes as general categories, broken down to frame each through the trends and complications they faced up to the fourth quarter, according to Lee & Associates’ research. Industrial: Q3 Posts More Record Demand Pandemic-fueled consumer spending drove up third-quarter demand for warehouse and distribution facilities that eclipsed previous records. And despite a nationwide surge in new construction, some metros can barely accommodate the pace of tenant expansion. Additionally, year-over-year rent growth is at a record 6.7 percent for the industrial property sector…

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InterFace Panel: Supply Chain Issues Continue to Challenge Multifamily Developers

Taylor Williams — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 16:35:51 +0000

By Taylor Williams Facing extended construction timelines and elevated costs of materials due to COVID-19’s disruption of global, national and local supply chains, multifamily developers are being forced to pivot, improvise and forge new relationships with suppliers in order to manage overall risk levels within their projects. Even before the pandemic, real estate developers and users across all asset classes understood how crucial competent supply chain management was to their budgets. But the global health crisis has reinforced that fact, especially for developers whose product type remains in high demand, such as housing providers in the rapidly growing state of Texas. In terms of basic economics, when COVID-19 hit and ground global commerce to a halt, suppliers across a range of industries decreased their inventories in response to sluggish demand for sundry goods and services. With vaccines now widely available, travel picking back up and businesses reopening at full capacity, pent-up demand is being unleashed on these industries, including real estate development, forcing suppliers to rebuild their inventories. Yet this process is not a simple matter of flipping a switch back on. Furthermore, being aware of a problem is very different from actually solving it. And a global pandemic that…

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‘Power Panel’ at InterFace Event Provides Positive Outlook for Student Housing Sector Post-COVID-19

John Nelson — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 11:51:30 +0000

Moving toward the start of a fresh academic year, the outlook for the student housing industry keeps getting brighter. A testament to the industry’s movement out of the pandemic is taking place at the InterFace Student Housing conference in Austin, where nearly 1,300 attendees have been able to gather in-person for the first time since April 2019. This year’s event, which concludes today, is taking place at the JW Marriott downtown. The student housing sector banded together like never before in the face of COVID-19 and truly worked as a team throughout the pandemic, with the ultimate goal of keeping students as safe as possible. The sector’s resilience during the pandemic and optimism regarding the year ahead were the driving discussion points during the conference’s “Power Panel” on Wednesday, July 14, which brought together a consortium of high-level executives to discuss industry trends, their experiences with COVID-19 and the outlook for the upcoming academic year. “The past 18 months have been a whirlwind of uncertainty,” began moderator Peter Katz, executive director at Institutional Property Advisors, a division of Marcus & Millichap. “While our sector has been historically categorized as recession-resilient, we would all now claim it to be pandemic-resistant.” “Student…

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Property Tax Roundtable: Appraisers Adjust to the Pandemic With Procedural Changes

John Nelson — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 12:45:38 +0000

In early 2020, the rapidly unfolding pandemic threatened to derail Texas’ property tax assessment and appeal process. With stay-at-home orders being issued at the same time that appraisal districts were sending out initial values for 2020, uncertainty cast doubt on how the process would proceed, or even whether it would proceed at all. Taxing entities were concerned with revenue impacts, and taxpayers were concerned about their ability to pay. Texas launches the property tax cycle every Jan. 1 with a revaluation of property. In most jurisdictions, taxpayers expect to receive notices of appraised value sometime in April, with the deadline for protesting the appraised value typically falling in May. Under normal circumstances, these dates begin the property tax protest cycle for the year. On March 31, 2020, however, the “typical year” quickly became anything but. Appraisal districts faced the nearly impossible task of navigating an unprecedented scenario with limited time and resources. Their success in maintaining a functioning appeals process is a testament to the professionalism of the state’s chief appraisers and personnel and to the fundamental strength of Texas’ property tax system. We queried chief appraisers and commercial supervisors from several appraisal districts about their experiences from the past…

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Multifamily Developers in Houston Focus on Affordability

Sarah Daniels — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 12:00:42 +0000

With a historic drop in oil prices amid a global pandemic, fate dealt Houston a bad hand in 2020, to put it mildly. But this is not the first time the city has seen bleak conditions — and faced them down. In 2015-2016, the metropolitan area was throttled by a double whammy of an oil bust and the Memorial Day and Tax Day floods, decimating a full 10 percent of its multifamily housing stock. Yet, by 2020, the city’s job growth exceeded the national rate for the 25th consecutive month, and its multifamily market was set to deliver nearly 17,000 units, double the volume from 2019. Before the oil crash and COVID-19 pandemic hit, Houston’s increasingly diverse economy meant that its fundamentals were strong, and demand was growing for multifamily. Through hurricanes, floods, tornados, boom-and-bust cycles in the oil and gas markets and more, Houston persevered. Houston has one of largest metropolitan populations in the U.S. and is growing, adding more than a million people since 2010. This 2-percent-per-year average growth is more than twice the 0.7 percent average for the United States. Of the 10 largest metropolitan areas, only Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston have been able to grow at…

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Warehouse Sector Reaches New Heights as User Demand for Flexibility, Variation Increases

Taylor Williams — Thu, 06 Aug 2020 11:00:41 +0000

By Nazir Khalfe, Principal, Powers Brown Architecture Having designed multiple millions of square feet of speculative and build-to-suit industrial buildings in my career, I’ve witnessed some striking trends over the past two decades, especially with the advancements made in tilt-wall construction. The ability to go higher and store and ship more product with today’s technology is creating an ever-changing landscape for industrial product. We have witnessed the boom of e-commerce, advancements in logistics and automation, and all the while tried to keep up with the dynamic market forces that produce a successful industrial park. Since the Great Recession, demand for industrial space has been at a premium, not only in Texas but also in most markets throughout the United States. Out of necessity for how our lives are changing, the industrial market has become the darling of the real estate industry. In 2020, thanks to the exponential growth of e-commerce activity and manufacturing jobs, we are breaking new ground on how a standard industrial park looks, feels and operates. While COVID-19 has not changed the expansive, open-space feel of warehouses where social distancing is inherently built-in, the pandemic has started to impact the industrial world on the development side. Developers…

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Attention Texas Owners: Beware of Property Tax Increases During COVID-19

Kristin Harlow — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 12:30:47 +0000

By Darlene Sullivan, Popp Hutcheson PLLC As if a global economic contraction and an unfolding recession across the United States were not enough, many commercial real estate owners across Texas have seen their taxable property values increase this year. While many of these owners are calling for property tax relief to offset the financial burden they are suffering due to stay-at-home orders and business closures triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, they may be unsure of potential remedies to pursue or arguments to make. Given that the date of valuation is Jan. 1, 2020, property owners searching for relief are limited as to the information that appraisal districts will consider for this tax year. Potentially limited relief in 2020 does not mean taxpayers lack options, however. There are three key strategies that commercial property owners need to implement in 2020 if they want to maximize reductions in taxable value for this and future years. 1. Consider filing a 2020 appeal — even if the taxable value did not increase from the prior year. The state was already shutting down nonessential activities as appraisal districts were preparing to mail out their 2020 Notices of Appraised Value. Most appraisal districts delayed the mailings…

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Revenue Volatility: Friend or Foe to San Antonio Multifamily Investors?

Sarah Daniels — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 13:39:57 +0000

During the great multifamily bull market of this passing decade, investors became increasingly comfortable with exposure to highly volatile metropolitan markets. In an era when it was difficult to make a bad investment decision, the most lucrative were, in most cases, located in areas of the country known for their roller-coaster real estate cycles. Indeed, it seemed as though a purchase capitalization rate could never be too low if an asset was located in one of the primary markets. Volatility was an ally, not a foe — an investment feature, not a bug. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant recession, however, volatility appears to have switched allegiances. The winds now favor, perhaps, the stable, predictable tortoises over the high-flying hares. In high-cost markets, the number of renters considering relocating to more affordable area codes has skyrocketed, and in the work-from-home era, this has become more of an achievable goal than an inchoate urge. For example, the San Francisco Apartment Association reported that 7.5 percent of tenants in the city — where rents increased at a 6.1 percent compound annual rate since 2010 — simply broke their leases in the three months that ended in May, moving…

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Austin: The Right Place at the Right Time for Multifamily Sector

Sarah Daniels — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 12:00:27 +0000

“After COVID-19, nothing ever will be the same,” has become a common refrain these days. Perhaps for the next decade or so, every important life choice will be made with public health and safety concerns in mind — and the most commonly chosen solutions will be meaningfully different than before. Among the most fundamental life choices subject to this new scrutiny will be where to live, how to make a living and how to safely move about. Many Americans will opt for less densely populated neighborhoods, increased work-from-home opportunities and private transportation options. When the time arrives to put plans into action, however, most will elect to take small steps rather than a giant leap. Perhaps the high-rise apartment and subway ride to a co-working space can be sacrificed, but not at the expense of convenience, access to nightlife and entertainment and career prospects. Urbanity isn’t out of style, but its form will mutate. Some U.S. metros will struggle to adapt, including a few primary markets. Others seem to be attuned to the times, blessed with all of the now prized attributes already in place. None is more perfectly positioned than Austin. Austin checks all the boxes. It is less…

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Innovative, Tech-Savvy Retailers Better Equipped to Survive, says Texas Panel

Taylor Williams — Fri, 08 May 2020 12:38:45 +0000

Brick-and-mortar retailers in Texas that have found creative ways to develop new income streams and to leverage technology to directly engage their customer bases have proven most resilient in battling the financial headwinds the sector faces as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. A panel of retail real estate professionals in Dallas and Austin spoke to this trend and others during the Texas Retail Reboot webinar, which was held on Thursday, May 7. Shopping Center Business and Texas Real Estate Business, two magazines published by Atlanta-based France Media Inc., hosted the event, which drew more than 600 registrants. The panelists’ insights, which touched on both past successes and future opportunities, were delivered roughly a week after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott approved a Phase I plan to reopen retail and restaurant establishments at reduced occupancies and with heightened sanitation guidelines. The webinar was also held less than 24 hours before the governor allowed service retailers like hair and nail salons to reopen. Tanya Hart Little, CEO of Dallas-based Hart Advisors Group, moderated the discussion. Hart Advisors Group also sponsored the event. Jennifer Pierson, co-owner of Dallas-based investment brokerage firm STRIVE, was the first panelist to identify this commonality among retailers that…

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