Articles

Wayne Archer teaching a class in Hough Hall

Location, Location, Location

After 50-plus years teaching real estate at the University of Florida Warrington College of Business, Wayne Archer shares his career-long revelations. Growing up on the plains of Kansas, Wayne Archer once thought that he would like to spend his life working the land as a farmer. As a youngster, he spent several summers at the [...]

One hundred dollar bills transposed over the sky with city skyscrapers silhouetted along the bottom

New Perspectives on Inflation Shocks and Public Real Estate Equity Returns

Introduction Inflation has again reared its ugly head in the United States. The December 2021 CPI inflation rate, 6.8%, was the highest recorded in 39 years, and producer prices were 9.8% higher than a year earlier. Relative to the past several decades, inflation is rising and survey evidence shows that actual inflation exceeds the expected [...]

Hallway with server computers or mainframe computers on both sides

The Path to Becoming Mainstream

Historically, institutional investors have favored companies that own and operate traditional property types — office, retail, industrial, apartments, and lodging/resort. These “core” real estate assets are attractive investments for providing greater diversification, reliable income, and predictable yield. Today, market sentiment remains bullish, despite the major economic disruption in 2020. In 2021, the industry experienced record-high [...]

Building with retail shops on the ground floor with apartments above them

Retail Under Apartments

Mixed-Use History Mixed-use real estate has been a central theme in urban development since the reign of the Roman Empire, where apartment units were built over city marketplaces. Mixed-use is not a new planning or development option. Before industrialization, mixed-use property was common throughout the United States. Since walking was the primary means of transportation [...]

The pool and clubhouse at the Retreat at Lakeland

Multifamily Investment Roundtrip: The Retreat at Lakeland

The Retreat at Lakeland is a 464-unit apartment community located in Lakeland, Florida. Covenant Capital Group is an expert at finding communities in need of attention and turning them into quality institutional assets. The experience at Retreat at Lakeland highlights both Covenant Capital Group’s expertise and the current market opportunities. The property was acquired in [...]

New home framed up on a construction site

Significant Digits: March 2022

Single-Family Homes – Build to Rent The distinction between rented and owner-occupied residences has typically been that apartments are rented and single-family houses are owner-occupied. Despite this generalization, individuals and small private investors have rented single-family homes forever. Until recently, this has occurred at a small scale with individuals and private investment groups acting as [...]

Looking up at the side of Heavener Hall in the courtyard with palm trees filtering the sun

Member Perspectives: March 2022

Bergstrom Survey – From ’21 to ’22 Real estate performance should have carried a bigger headline during 2021 but there were a few distractions. With so much discussion about viruses, the CDC, global travel limitations, masks, and general anxiety, there was too little space to realize that the real estate market was performing extremely well. [...]

Two people walk through a modern office with glass partitions and computer stations

Has the Office Market Changed Forever?

When the unexpected pandemic shocked the country in March 2020, strict quarantine mandates and shelter-in-place orders forced businesses to transition out of office space and restructure operations to a remote working platform. The office market and its users felt an immediate impact. The second quarter of 2020 marked the sharpest downturn in office market activity [...]

Federal Reserve Bank Building Philadelphia

Experts on Interest Rates

In the United States, the Treasury yield curve is the driver of all domestic interest rates — as all other domestic bond categories rise and fall with Treasuries. Equally as important as the current interest rates, investors everywhere pay close attention to predictions about where rates will go in the future. Virtually every investment calculation [...]

David Ling speaks to a classroom as students look on

Real Estate Research from The Gator Nation

Academic Real Estate Research from the UF Warrington School of Business came out of a cannon to start 2021. Real Estate Economics, arguably the most prestigious academic real estate journal, presented four distinct articles in its first two issues that were co-authored by David Ling. Publishing four articles across two issues of a top academic [...]

The sun rises behind a building construction site with busy workers and cranes

Keeping the Hardhats On

It should come as no surprise that 2020 was a unique year in the construction industry. With strict lockdown mandates, remote working, and fear of virus infection, the country experienced a shock that rippled through the economy. News of the pandemic and realization of its potential impacts arrived at the end of the first quarter. [...]

Stations with equipment for an industry inside a large room

Can Industrial Performance Persist?

The commercial real estate industry’s industrial sector has separated itself from the performance of all other sectors over recent years. As shown in Figure 1, warehouse total returns have outperformed total NCREIF Property Index (NPI) returns each year since 2011. Furthermore, since 2016, the industrial sector’s total returns dramatically exceeded that of all other sectors, [...]

Charts and tables with a magnifying glass and wood block buildings laid on top

Significant Digits: October 2021

Private Sector Real Estate Returns Over the previous four quarters, all investment markets attempted to adjust to the second quarter 2020 news that the global economy was closed in an attempt to control the spread of the virus. Many real estate factors responded to the shock: sales volume dropped, leasing stopped, and uncertainty spiked. Starting [...]

Skyscrapers with reflective glass fronts and percentages overlaid on the photo

Member Perspectives: October 2021

One year of results from the Bergstrom Center Survey have been recorded. The past year has been interesting and uncertain but our members of the real estate industry held a positive outlook throughout. The most challenging time was during fourth quarter 2020, our initial survey period. Economic restrictions such as restaurant closings and office “stay [...]

Hourglass on beach

Sea Levels Around the Florida Coast

Don’t Panic – But Plan No accusations, no admonishment, no requests to reverse progress, no blame, no trend extrapolation. Instead, let’s look at measured historical results and form a plan to protect our assets. In recent years, there have been many discussions and predictions about the future state of Florida’s coastal property. Some boldly predict [...]