The Commercial Real Estate Alpha Site

Just driving the Gulf Coast and spending time staying on the pulse of the market through osmosis and news reports, podcasts, research, etc, here are some of the observations we have made recently.

1. Residential properties are staying on the market longer and in some cases are seeing a price reduction or multiple price adjustments downward. At the end of the day, the run up was quite steep and this is generally a move to the median versus troubling data.
2. Lending has gotten tight and difficult. Some lenders are offering lower amounts of downpayment but ultimately the interest rate and additional terms can be prohibitive.
3. I’m starting to get emails from builder’s for single family homes where they are really banging the drum to pay a commission to residential agents to bring them buyers. To me that’s a red flag that sales may be lagging.
4. In my neck of the woods (Manatee County (East)) I have been seeing a slough of homes for rent being built or already completed. I see a bit of a perfect storm with those rentals, standard multifamily rentals and condo/SFH rentals cannibalizing each other for the top end rents. It may take the next 12-18 months for this resonate and impact our market but it certainly is showing some signs of easing.