Articles About Office

A combination of limited supply growth and anticipated stabilization of the jobs market could mean that office rents may return to positive growth sooner rather than later.  That’s the opinion of Victor Calanog, a researcher at Reis, Inc., one of the nation’s leading providers of commercial real estate performance information and analysis. According to Calanog, […]

The Energy Star ratings system and the Home Star program are likely to be joined by Building Star, which will provide incentives to improve energy efficiency in commercial and multi-family residential buildings.  Legislation to establishe Building Star was introduced by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR). If the legislation becomes law, the […]

Two massive earthquakes in a single month – an 8.8 trembler in Chile and a 7.0 quake in Haiti – have raised the question of whether engineers can design buildings that don’t crumble when the earth’s tectonic plates crash against one another. Although the simple answer is that the technology exists to make buildings almost […]

Despite the Snowmageddon that crippled Washington, D.C. and much of the East Coast during February, the economy continued to grow at a modest rate.  This is the opinion of the Federal Reserve’s newly issued Beige Book report – officially known as the “Summary of Commentary on Current Economics Conditions by Federal Reserve District” — which […]

A little-noticed bill was introduced in Congress in January that could bring a new source of liquidity to the commercial real estate sector – foreign investment.  Legislation introduced by Congressman Joseph Crowley (D-NY) called the Real Estate Revitalization Act of 2010 would cut taxes that were introduced as part of the Foreign Investment Real Estate […]

Economic indicators show that the recession is over.  This is the opinion of Rick Mattoon, a senior economist and advisor in the economic research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and a lecturer at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.  Rick’s primary research focuses on issues facing the Midwest regional economy. […]

The last 30 years have seen a boom for skyscraper construction because the cost of borrowing money had declined significantly. When investors borrow money to purchase assets, they send prices higher.  The problem is that this borrowing makes the markets susceptible to busts when investors sell assets to pay their debts.  The recent financial crisis […]

Arizona, Georgia and Texas are the growth centers in terms of new residents in the last few years, according to an Associated Press analysis of Internal Revenue Service migration data. The IRS compared the states where taxpayers filed their returns from 2007 to 2008 to arrive at their conclusions. Texas led the nation, with 62,827 […]

A building boom is transforming the core of a fabled city that endured decades of war and turmoil.  It’s Beirut, where battered  Ottoman-era building are being restored and high-rise apartment towers with mirrored facades are rising along the Mediterranean waterfront. Beirut’s unprecedented building boom is transforming Lebanon into an investment haven at a time when […]

Capital is flowing out of the Middle East and being invested in real estate across the globe, according to Nicholas Maclean, Managing Director, CB Richard Ellis, Middle East. “The outflow of capital from the Middle East to be invested into real estate properties worldwide has been higher than the influx of global capital into real […]