Posts Tagged ‘RECGA’
PWC’s Quarterly CRE Review
PwC’s quarterly commercial real estate review just hit my desk. I have a particular affinity for this survey-based review — it was founded about 30 years ago by Peter Korpacz, MAI, an alumni of the Real Estate Counseling Group of America and an acquaintance of mine. PwC took it over a few years ago, and have done wonderfully with it.
The entire report, at 106 pages, is far too robust for a simple summary. However, a key metric is the review of capitalization rate changes by property type (e.g. — warehouse, apartments) and offices by region (e.g. — Manhattan, DC, San Francisco). A cap rate, of course, is the ratio of a property’s net operating income to its sales price. Declining cap rates on a broad front can indicate the onset of a recession, but differential cap rate changes (rising in one market, declining in another) may suggest differing sector views by real estate investors. By property type, this is what we appear to have today.
For example, warehouse cap rates currently average 5.27% nationally, but this represents a decline by 10 basis points just in the 2nd quarter. Generally, this points to a favorable view of warehouses by investors — they’re willing to pay a bit more for each dollar of prospective income. Conversely, offices in the central business district saw increases of 13 basis points, suggesting a softening of CBD office prospects.
Across various regions of the country, offices in general (both CBD and others) showed either no change or declines in cap rates, with the biggest cap rate declines occurring in Phoenix and Philadelphia. Only Denver and Atlanta showed increases in office cap rates.
Overall, investors expect cap rates to hold steady or increase over the coming six months. Indeed, only among CBD offices and power centers was there any sentiment for cap rate decreases. 100% of investors expect net lease properties to show cap rate increases in the coming 6 months, which portends value softening in that property sector.
We’ve used the nasty “R” word (ahem… “recession”) on occasion here at Greenfield, and PwC seems to agree with us. They expect that the office sector will peak by the end of this year, and a large number of metro areas are expected to move into contraction during 2018 and 2019. They expect 61% of cities in their survey to show retail property recession by the end of this year, but with some limited exceptions (Austin and Charleston).
Industrial properties, on the other hand, should fare well, with only Houston headed for recession during 2017. They also expect 15 other markets, including Los Angeles and Atlanta, to face industrial recession by the end of this year. Further, a large supply of industrial property is expected to come to market during the near term, suggesting an industrial over-supply for the next four years.
One bright spot is multi-family, which continues to “benefit from the unaffordability of single family homes”. Two markets need to play catch-up (Charlotte and Denver) but other markets should fare well, with 40% of markets headed for expansion.
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sushi or dead fish?
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.”
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October 10 — Update #2
Since my last post, I also had the privilege of attending (and speaking) at the semi-annual meeting of the Real Estate Counseling Group of America (RECGA). RECGA is a small but highly influential group, founded in the 1970’s by the great real estate valuation leader, Dr. Bill Kinnard, and over the years has counted in its membership many of the presidents of the Appraisal Institute and other leading groups, editors of several of the top real estate journals, noted professors and highly influential authors in the field.
The Fall meeting was held in Washington, DC, and the core of the meeting was Friday’s educational session. Max Ramsland opened up with a presentation demonstrating the impact of the number of anchor tenants on the appropriate cap rate of shopping centers. Carl Shultz, a member of the Appraisal Standards Board, followed with a discussion of impending changes to the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP). These changes are currently discussed in an Exposure Draft, which he invited RECGA members to revieww and submit comments about, and will be incorporated (with appropriate changes) in the 2012 edition of USPAP. Both Mr. Ramsland and Mr. Shultz are also RECGA members.
Two non-members followed with somewhat related presentations on eminent domain. Scott Bullock from the Institute for Justice was one of the attorneys who argued the famed Kelo case before the U.S. Supreme Court, and he discussed the status of eminent domain law since that landmark case. With a somewhat different perspective, we heard from Andrew Goldfrank, a U.S. Justice Department attorney who heads up all Federal takings litigation.
The afternoon session kicked off with David Lenhoff, a RECGA member and former editor of the Appraisal Journal, who discussed the complex issues surrounding hotel valuation. I followed with a brief synopsis on the Gulf Oil Spill, focusing on the current status of the claims and litigation processes. Reeves Lukens, a RECGA member, and his son, Tripp Lukens, discussed the state of pharmaceutical properties in the U.S. Joe Magdziarz, who is the incoming president of the Appraisal Institute (AI) discussed the current issues facing that organization, with a particularly emphasis on the recent controversies between AI and the Appraisal Foundation (AF). Notably, the founding Chair of AF, Jeff Fisher, is a RECGA member and was able to provide some historic commentary. RECGA members Jeff Fisher and Ron Donahue brought the day to a conclusions with discussions about the state of the securitized real estate market, including REITs.
For more information about RECGA, visit the web site, www.recga.com.
From a small northwestern observatory... 