Market Reports

Economic development is, in many ways, the business of facilitating growth. Yet in Texas, thanks to an array of business- and development-friendly policies and laws, influxes of jobs, people and new real estate projects to support them sometimes seem to just happen naturally. When this kind of heavy growth is sustained over time, it can lead to less-affordable housing, more cookie-cutter retail scenes and heavier congestion and pressure on local infrastructure. But it is possible for smaller municipalities to embrace job and population growth with new real estate uses and projects in ways that don’t entirely compromise the historic charm or tranquility that many residents of these cities value. Revitalizing a downtown area — bringing in new businesses, adaptively reusing older buildings, creating pedestrian-friendly networks — is a primary means of marrying those objectives. When a successful downtown revitalization program is executed, the benefits tend to have a domino effect. Elevated foot traffic boosts sales at local businesses, increasing asset values over time and stimulating sales of properties. Other investors take note of the viable business plan, and the rest becomes history. But the whole process often starts with the visions of local business owners and the willingness of local …

By Taylor Williams For the last several years, as COVID-19, inflation and interest rate hikes have chronologically rocked the commercial real estate industry, the term “dry powder” has increasingly factored into investment discussions. While the term generally refers to cash or capital that is parked on the sidelines, 2024 could well be the year for its deployment.  There are several basic reasons for endorsing this notion. First, at its December meeting, the Federal Reserve signaled that it would cut rates three times this year, which should theoretically make debt financing more accessible and less expensive — though the extent of that depends on the magnitude of the reductions.  Second, as evidenced by the stock market tear following that announcement, investors are itching to deploy capital and will rally around just about any reason to do so, proven or not.  Third, there is roughly $537 billion in commercial real estate loans that will mature next year, according to New York City-based Trepp. This staggering volume of impending maturities in a high-interest-rate environment all but assures that some assets will be forced into sales, whether by owners pre-default or lenders post-default. And finally, the 10-year Treasury yield — the benchmark rate against …

By Taylor Williams The growth story of Central Texas is compelling enough that commercial developers and investors are still aggressively targeting the region, even as costs of doing business hit the roof. In fact, both cities recently cracked the Top 10 on Urban Land Institute’s list of markets to watch in the organization’s Emerging Trends report for 2024. To dispense with the bad and obvious, the region — loosely defined as the swath of land bookended by the Austin and San Antonio metro areas — is not exempt from wide-ranging industry headwinds. Newer trends like working from home, as well as entrenched issues like a shortage of affordable housing and crushing interest rates, impact deals and projects in high-growth markets perhaps even more harshly than their smaller counterparts. This is simply due to the principles of supply and demand.  Further, the region faces homegrown challenges stemming from a decade-plus of hyper-accelerated expansion, namely a skyrocketing cost of living and insufficient infrastructure to support demand from tenants and residents.  But the fundamentals of job and population growth remain so robust in Central Texas that buyers and builders, particularly within the industrial and multifamily spaces, can still invest and develop in this …