Fundamentals Supporting Real Estate Demand “Quite Solid”
The latest episode of The REIT Report: NAREIT’s Weekly Podcast features a conversation with John Worth, NAREIT’s senior vice president for research and investor outreach. Worth is taking part in a session at REITWise 2017: NAREIT’s Law, Accounting & Finance Conference that will assess the state of the real estate market. He will be joined on the panel by Calvin Schnure, NAREIT’s senior vice president for research and economic analysis, and Green Street Advisors Director of U.S. REIT Research Cedrik Lachance.
According to Worth, the participants will first focus on the broad economic outlook before drilling down to discuss the implications for commercial real estate and REITs. Additionally, the panelists will offer their thoughts on some of the major trends in the real estate industry, such as the effects of e-commerce on the retail sector.
“Obviously, that is creating a situation where retailers are reshaping their businesses,” he said. “REITs are doing some interesting things in terms of making sure they are where the customer wants to be in the future.”
In terms of the broad economic outlook, Worth said the fundamentals supporting the demand side of the real estate market as “quite solid.” They include steady GDP growth, low unemployment and monthly payroll gains. Worth also noted that labor force participation and wages are rising slowly.
“All of those conditions should be very supportive in terms of demand for use of commercial real estate,” Worth said.
Worth said the topic of the real estate cycle may lead to debate during the session. Using a baseball analogy, Worth offered that he feels the real estate cycle is still in the “middle innings.”
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Published at Thu, 16 Mar 2017 15:53:15 +0000