From a small northwestern observatory…

I’m at the semi-annual meetings of the Real Estate Counseling Group of America (RECGA), a small (capped at 30), invitation-only group of real estate experts founded by the esteemed Dr. Bill Kinnard back in the 1970’s. Over the years, RECGA members have included editors of major journals, presidents of various real estate academic and professional organizations, and advisors to major investment groups. We’ve nearly lost track of how many text books have been written by the members — well over several dozen, plus many hundreds of journal articles, book chapters, and scholarly papers.

A few somewhat random observations:

Investment activity is up, but the major impediments are lack of capital and excess inventory
Apartment “cap” rates are falling again, with lots of activity
The credit markets are still a mess, with no consensus on when they will be “fixed”

Wonderful presentations (patting myself on the back for one of them), with great interaction on complex issues in real estate analysis and valuation.

Why the title to this post? Simple — one real estate investor was quoted as saying, “The market today is like a platter of seafood. I have to figure out which are sushi and which are just dead fish.”