Nine Must Reads for the CRE Industry Today (March 18, 2022)Nine Must Reads for the CRE Industry Today (March 18, 2022)

Homes Earned for Owners Than Their Jobs Last Year “In this booming housing market, many homeowners earned more last year from home appreciation than from their jobs. Zillow Group Inc.’s home value index, which estimates the value of the typical U.S. home, rose 19.6% in 2021 to $321,634, an increase of $52,667 from 2020. That figure was slightly higher than what the median U.S. full-time worker earned, which was about $50,000 last year before taxes, according to Census Bureau data cited by Zillow.” (The Wall Street Journal)

The Shift to Work-at-Home Is So Pronounced That New York Properties Near Rail Stations Now Trade at a Discount “In New York City, a study finds, there was a discount rather than premium associated with properties near rail stations.” (MarketWatch)

Investors Slow Push into Bank Loan Funds “Investors poured tens of billions of dollars into the funds in the past year, betting that the floating-rate debt would help them weather the coming wave of interest-rate increases by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Now, concerns that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising energy prices could slow the U.S. economy have led some investors to question whether the Fed will raise interest rates as aggressively as expected just a few weeks ago. That, in turn, has sapped interest in the funds, which had net inflows of $15.1 million in the week ending March 9, down from $179.1 million a week earlier and a record $2.29 billion the week of Feb. 9, Refinitiv Lipper said.” (The Wall Street Journal)

KKR to Acquire Leading Japanese Real Estate Asset Manager from Mitsubishi Corporation and UBS Asset Management in a Strategic Transaction “KKR & Co. Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, “KKR”), Mitsubishi Corporation (“Mitsubishi”) and UBS Group and UBS AG (“UBS”) today announced the signing of a strategic transaction by a subsidiary of KKR, which is acquiring all of the outstanding shares of Mitsubishi Corp.-UBS Realty Inc. (“MC-UBSR”) from Mitsubishi and UBS Asset Management (“UBS-AM”) in an all-cash transaction valued at JPY230 billion (US$2 billion) (the “Acquisition”).” (Business Wire)

PropTech VCs and CEOs Mostly Bullish On 2022: Index “Despite the lingering effects of COVID-19 and growing inflation fears, the end of 2021 saw proptech investor optimism about the sector tying an all-time high, while founder sentiment slightly receded but remained strong, according to responses to MetaProp’s Year-End 2021 Global PropTech Confidence Index survey. The leading early-stage real estate tech venture capital firm released the index Wednesday morning.” (Commercial Observer)

Public Meetings Thwart Housing Reform Where It Is Needed Most “Even before the pandemic exacerbated the problem, more than half of American mayors named housing costs as one of the top reasons people left their cities. (It even outranked education and public safety.) On average they estimated needing a 16 percent increase in housing, which would require the rate of construction to quadruple. But in many places, a burst of construction is an impossibility. Land-use regulations have become more restrictive in the last four decades. The development process is full of choke points, often manned by zealous activists who seek to prevent multifamily housing from coming to their communities.” (Governing)

U.S. Retail Sales Slow, Huge Savings Likely to Provide a Cushion Against Inflation “U.S. retail sales increased moderately in February as more expensive gasoline and food forced households to cut back spending on other goods like furniture, electronics and appliances, which could restrain economic growth this quarter. The report from the Commerce Department on Wednesday, however, showed the rebound in sales in January was much stronger than initially estimated. Record gasoline and high food prices are hitting lower-income households the hardest.” (U.S. News & World Report)

Can NYC Live Without Its $1.7 Billion-a-Year Developer Tax Break? Dueling Claims Define Budget Talks “To the Citizens Budget Commission, the controversial property tax break called 421-a for developers of new rental buildings, including affordable apartments, is essential to increase the city’s too-small housing supply. ‘Allowing 421-a to lapse would significantly reduce rental housing development, worsen the city’s existing housing supply shortage and make New York City’s already scarce and costly rental housing scarcer and more expensive,’ the CBC said in a report titled ‘Amend it, Don’t End It’ issued Wednesday.” (The City)

Target Looks to Massive Solar Panels in a California Parking Lot as a Green Model to Power its Stores “Target has rolled out one of the most visible displays of its efforts to become a greener company: Massive carports topped with solar panels that will power a big-box store in California. The panels, high above the parking lot, will produce enough renewable energy to power the entire store, from its refrigeration to its heating and air conditioning, the retail chain says.” (CNBC)