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Dallas January 2021 – Key Take Aways

  • Laila Assanie with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas stated that although the COVID-19 case counts have slightly decreased, Texas is still at “peak in deaths and hospitalizations” so she is hopeful that with the current vaccines that have become available, “these days will be behind us very soon.”  The employment rate has bounced around quite a bit with December being slower than November, but it still remains slightly above the average for the U.S.  This is not concerning to her because the labor force growth in Texas has slightly improved compared to what they have seen in the U.S. overall.   She also cited a recent survey showing that many firms and companies have an optimistic outlook moving into 2021. 
  • Blake Lugash with Realty Capital Partners is seeing a lot of deal flow and opportunity with a lot of selling already in 2021.  He has not seen a lot of projects because “it’s difficult to find that diamond in the rough” and they are always looking for something different.  He also stated that “as long as it’s good for us, we’re gonna do it.” 
  • Sharon Friedberg with Fischer & Company is surprised by the personnel movement that she is seeing with leading and big brokers.   A lot of clients are looking to buy small buildings around 10,000 – 20,000SF and those sizes are difficult to find.  She is still not seeing a sense of urgency with her clients to move forward on deals but she stated that landlords are “sweetening the pot.”   Rent prices are holding steady but concessions are growing, for example:  free rent, free parking, increase in TI.  She feels that reconfigurations are going to take place over downsizing. 
  • Scott Lynn is starting to see more activity and interest in raising capital for distressed properties.   He feels that apartments are a little more entrepreneurial and although industrial is great, it seems to require “big bucks to get into large industrial deals”.
  • Howard Fuerst with Ten-X Commercial Real Estate said that the velocity in deal making was far greater last year than in the last 10 years.  Ten-X had 446 transactions resulting in $1.64B in sales and the average sales price was 15% over the seller’s reserve price.  
  • John Rhodes with Foresite Group stated that they are seeing a shift in projects with projects already looking to get back “some semblance of normalcy with businesses moving forward.”  

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