Blog

Remember inflation? That is what happens when prices go up, and buying power of your dollar goes down. That has been generally flat the past few years and off everyone’s radar screen. In Commercial Real Estate, it is generally accepted that the rate of inflation is about 2%. For example, in leases, Landlords can raise […]

“How you doin’?” is our typical greeting, but let’s ask Commercial Real Estate that question. In San Antonio we are doing pretty well, thank you. Texas is leading the nation in population growth, growing at twice the rate of California and more then Florida and Colorado. San Antonio is right there with the other major […]

So often we hear that we are in such an “uncertain time”. Really? Please name a period in history when we were not in an uncertain time, and then how long did it last? We seem to have forgotten the time-honored maxim, “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” Change is the most basic element […]

Job growth is the lifeblood of commercial real estate because it means companies lease new space and build new buildings. Did you know that most of our new jobs come from companies who are already in San Antonio, not relocations from outside? For example, HEB builds a new grocery store and hires 300 new people.  […]

The Business Cycle is often described as a sine curve, like a wave that rolls up and down, up and down, or like a roller coaster. We proceed from prosperity to peril, boom to bust, greed to fear, etc. As you have heard, “Trees don’t grow to the sky” a phrase, inferring that economic expansions […]

Where do we fit in?  Mayor Nirenberg and the City Council always make a point that “San Antonio is the Seventh Largest City in the U.S.” Well, sort of.  At a population of approximately 1.5-million this puts us in line behind New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, and Philadelphia and just ahead of San […]

Datacenters are basically warehouses for “1’s” and “0’s, the cyphers that make up the entire world of data, and generated by either an “on” or “off” switch of electricity. It’s all that simple and that complex.  It’s called binary code for you non-nerds in the audience.  Now the interesting thing about 1s and 0s is […]

When I first entered the commercial real estate business there were many metrics I needed to learn; for example, how many square feet are in an acre (43,560). One of the metrics I learned is that the average space used by an office worker was about 250 square feet.  This takes into account not only […]

Mae West once said, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!” That may be where commercial real estate is at this time in history. CRE has appreciated greatly over the past 8 years and all sectors are pretty fully valued at this point in the economic cycle.  So much so, that the few […]

As we celebrate the end of a great year, let’s review the commercial real estate market, and consider this past year as the prologue to the New Year 2018. Let me begin with the residential market, though. Interesting things are afoot. Here’s a clue – home sales volume is up, that is the dollar amount […]

So are the rumors of the retail apocalypse over blown? In San Antonio we are actually doing okay.  Yes, you have seen some of your favorite stores go dark or very seriously renegotiate leases, like Payless Shoes and Rue 21, and the incursion of eCommerce has certainly left its mark and given way to discussion […]

Home ownership has seen new trends come and go over the last decade. Housing is a major component of our economy and our homes are the central location for the living of our lives, raising our families, and the site of most of our best times and our worst times. Our homes have evolved over […]

Recently, I was privileged to represent the Buyer of Shavano Center I and II, a pair of office buildings on Loop 1604 near Paesanos Restaurant. The two office buildings totaled 57,000 square feet of Class A space and are nearly 89% leased. I present this as a case study in commercial real estate investments, but […]

Is the retail marketplace changing? With old businesses like Payless Shoes, Macy’s, J.C. Penny’s and Sears closing up shop we can conclude- yes, the retail marketplace is changing. This is partially due to the shift to on-line shopping and quick delivery to your door. But there are other forces at work – Millennials are somewhat […]

I think cities are like people in that each and every one of us has a unique personality, skills and experience. No two of us are alike, even brothers and sisters in the same family. How different is Dallas from Houston, albeit they are both large cities with close to 7 million populations and both […]

I’m sorry but every time I hear a pundit on T.V. or radio go on about the uncertainty we face, I have to laugh a little. Isn’t there an old saying, ‘There is nothing more certain than change?’ Ah, that was Heraclitis in 535 B.C. Or circa 1840, Jean-Batiste Karr, “The more things change, the […]

It’s a New Year and we have a new President.  Will this be a new age for commercial real estate?  The current expansion is 7 ½ years long, one of the longest on record, yet, remarkably we are not seeing signs of a downturn on the horizon.  The regional exception, of course, is Houston, but […]

“Everyone needs a place for his/her stuff,” said George Carlin (RIP).  Your house may be just the place where you keep your stuff, the housing market is an extremely important element of our society and our economy. Homeownership is key to personal property rights and personal homesteads have been a major source of personal wealth […]

In Politics there is a phrase, “October Surprise.”  Now there is a new one –“The November Surprise.” How will this affect commercial real estate in San Antonio?  It will be good.  The expectation is that we will see a positive change for small businesses; for example, the stocks of small capitalization companies were among the […]

Commercial Real Estate investment transactions are slowing markedly from the torrid pace of 2015, however, this matches the trend in 2012, another election year.  Regardless of who wins, a pick up after the election is likely. Interest rates play a huge role in our economy, and “lower longer” is still going to be the theme.   […]

San Antonio is known as the steady real estate market – neither big boom nor bust. So it goes. Prices of investment properties are continuing to increase, but the supply of available, attractive properties is not plentiful.  As mentioned in previous Reports, owners are sitting on their properties and are reluctant to sell.  The question […]

How safe is commercial real estate investing?  Are we over-building or is this the sweet spot? The Cost of new construction is now very high, as land prices, construction materials and labor costs have risen substantially; and they are very unlikely to decline.   One of the basic measures of a building’s value is ‘what would […]

Time for an overview of the commercial market place in San Antonio; subtitled “The stresses and strains of the New Normal.” Apartment construction has come back strongly since 2012, after the slump of the Great Recession. Occupancy is presently 92.6%, about the same as a year ago, and rents are up 3.6%, adding $30 per […]

Does this look like the front end of a Boom?  Please turn your attention to the following newspaper articles. The San Antonio Business Journal Oct 16, 2013 San Antonio’s housing prices were up 2.1%, the largest month over month increase for U.S. cities. Also from SABJ Oct 16 – San Antonio housing inventory hits an […]

Last Year I presented the proposal that because of Texas’ gross product and rate of growth, we can be considered the equal of many “Emerging Market” countries. Please look at the following chart, taken from “Business Insider.”   It illustrates how Texas has become the 13th largest oil producer in the world, if (only) Texas was a […]

When driving you are focusing on the windshield and road ahead, occasionally glancing  in the rear view mirror and side mirrors to be sure that what is going on behind and to your side is not going to disturb you.  Real estate is a lot like that — the past is our window to the […]

“Jobs” was the central issue in the recent election.  It is certainly on everyone’s minds with the national unemployment rate hovering around 8%; and if you go to the government’s  broadest measure of unemployment which includes all the potential workforce including those who have stopped looking, then, the unemployment rate is at about 15%.   It […]

“Are we there yet?” – Yes, this was the question your kids asked you on your summer vacation trip this year.  It is also the question everyone is asking about The Recovery.  Are we THERE yet?   Or are we starting another Double Dip? Or just limping into the New Normal malaises? At the moment it […]

Think of an egg and the little chicken inside is breaking out.  I believe this is an apt analogy for what is happening to our South Texas region as a result of the Eagle Ford Shale drilling boom.  The old dry shell has cracked open from the inside and a little chick emerges to become […]

We celebrate Texas Independence Day on April 21st which was the day of the victory over the army of Santa Ana at San Jacinto and the reason for Fiesta San Antonio.  We should pause to remember our great Texan heritage as an independent nation for the ten years from 1836 to 1846.  Our beloved Governor, […]

We are having a very interesting discussion in our fair city over private property rights.   You may know that Wal-Mart has a tract of land at Wurzbach Parkway and Blanco Road under contract.  The property has been appropriately zoned for this type of use since the early 1970’s when the land for the surrounding subdivisions […]

Happy New Year! This time last year I said that 2011 will be Year One of the Recovery. Well, we started off well for the first six months and then things fizzled in the latter half of the year. So now what’s next? With the economic landscape still shaky and the political scenery unclear in […]

As we approach the end of the year, I thought it time to do an overview of the market place. Some of the analysis comes from the recent CCIM Symposium. All in all, we are bumping along the bottom, awaiting a reason to turn optimistic but uncertain about the proverbial “Light at the end of […]

Isn’t it interesting to make a comparison between the Occupy Wall Street mob and the Tea Party? The Tea Partiers are middle-aged middle Americans, who wave the Stars & Stripes, clean up after themselves, and tout a clear message of reducing taxes and limiting government. Their result was a big success at the ballot boxes […]

In the June edition, I wrote about Uncertainty; and sadly this monster is still roaming, becoming even stronger, like a Transformer. In this metaphor from the movie, Risk is that fast and neat car, which is manageable to drive. But then it morphs into the monster of Uncertainty, which is destructive, deadly and uncontrollable, causing […]

“Uncertainty” is our word for the day.  It applies to predictions of future events and the unknown.  Uncertainty is distinctly different from the familiar term “risk” which is a measurable uncertainty.  Uncertainty is immeasurable. Risk, in the financial arena, is quantifiable.  It is incorporated into interest rates, discount rates, insurance premiums, capitalization rates and the […]

This blog is to be a convenient method for readers who are interested in Commercial Real Estate investing in San Antonio, Texas. We know you are assaulted daily with all sorts of conflicting information and insights on how the real estate market is doing, where to invest and what to avoid. IRC makes it our […]