Northeast

By Taylor Williams In late October of last year, Raphael Bostic, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, gave a virtual speech in which he carried a glass jar with the word “transitory” labeled on it.  Inside the jar were wadded-up dollar bills, deposited by Bostic’s staff members each time they used the word “transitory” to describe the surge in prices of consumer goods and services. The exercise was meant to dispel the notion that the current inflationary environment would be fleeting or short-lived. Based on the results of Northeast Real Estate Business’ annual reader forecast survey, commercial brokers and developers/owners in the region aren’t likely to be contributing to that fund any time soon.  Inflation Could Linger When asked to identify the macroeconomic force that was most likely to impact the commercial real estate industry in 2022, roughly a third of broker respondents selected inflationary pressures over supply chain constraints, pandemic restrictions, the $1 trillion infrastructure bill and employment/gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Concerns over pandemic-related restrictions on businesses, which adversely impact demand for space, was a close second among broker respondents. Some brokers elaborated on these views in the free-response section of the survey. “Continued inflation will …