A graphic depicting a digital brain with processor lines in the background and graph lines in an upward trend in the foreground all glowing on a dark background

Using Machine Learning and Big Data to Predict Real Estate Returns

The ability to predict financial returns has captivated investors and scholars for many years. Return prediction is essential to asset pricing and portfolio management. Predicting commercial real estate returns is complex and notoriously difficult but not impossible within some limits due to serial correlation and fundamental relationships. Classical econometric methods like linear regression have been [...]

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Big Print Job

On average it took more than 10 months to build a house in the United States in 2023, nearly three months longer than in 2015, according to government data. Economists and other experts blame the homebuilding sector’s poor productivity on culprits including stringent regulations and a shortage of skilled labor. But they also cite another [...]

A graphic cord plugged into an outlet and a glowing charging station against a wall and by a brick parking spot

Charging Up Commercial Real Estate

For electric vehicle (EV) drivers, deciding which apartment to rent, hotel to stay or even store to shop may come down to where they can plug in their ride. Seeing a business opportunity, commercial real estate developers and property owners are increasingly adding EV charging amenities to attract EV-driving customers, including at high-end properties where [...]

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The Essentials of Real Estate Education

As the multitrillion-dollar global real estate industry continues to evolve and expand, the importance of effective higher education cannot be overstated. In an era of ever more rapid technological and economic changes, what essential skills do graduates of real estate programs at higher education institutions need to succeed in the years ahead? Photo credit: Benjamin [...]

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The Value of Living Within Walking Distance

A 2015 survey conducted by the Urban Land Institute found half of adults view walkability as a top or high priority when considering where to live. This helps explain why real estate listing websites like Zillow and Redfin long ago began posting walkability rankings. The idea is to provide a measure of a neighborhood’s pedestrian-friendliness [...]

Artist rendering of the Atlantic One apartment community at Pompano Beach, Florida

Atlantic One, Pompano Beach, Fla.

Collier Cos. is developing the organization’s first project in Southeast Florida, Atlantic One, an apartment community with 303 units. The Pompano Beach, Fla. development also marks the Gainesville-based apartment developer’s first mixed-use urban infill community. Collier Cos. is led by Nathan Collier, who endowed the Nathan S. Collier Master of Science in Real Estate program [...]

Choppy floodwaters are up to the bottom of the windows of a home.

Flooding the Zone

Regulators and emergency officials are increasingly urging people to take flooding more seriously. Strengthen properties against flooding, don’t build in high-risk flood zones and buy flood insurance to protect your home. They argue not nearly enough homeowners buy flood insurance, especially in an era when climate scientists have documented rising sea levels and higher global [...]

Homes with palm trees and landscaping lining a curved street

Firearm Incidents and Housing Appreciation

Gun policies have been at the center of the country’s political debate for decades as incidents of mass shootings and violent crimes in schools have increasingly dominated news reports. Between 2014 and 2022, there were approximately 400,000 documented gun-related incidents nationwide, while Florida had 18,150 gun incidents, according to Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization [...]

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AI on AI

In line with the conversation about artificial intelligence affecting every aspect of our lives, Due Diligence offers insight into its impact on the real estate industry. When covering the field of AI, why not have AI write a story about AI’s use in real estate. This is exactly what we did. Using AI is not [...]

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Job Growth as an Indicator

Traditional real estate investment analysis often emphasizes population and household growth as primary indicators to gauge the demand for multifamily units in a given market. However, Rick Scarola, a UF Bergstrom Real Estate Center advisory board member, introduces a compelling alternative metric that leverages employment data to gauge market health. Scarola, a graduate of UF’s [...]

An aerial view of undeveloped land in Florida extending to the horizon

Thirty-Six-Million-Acre Balancing Act

Long ago, Mark Twain supposedly said, “Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.” The witticism seems ever more apt today, particularly in Florida, where the state’s strong population growth and competition for land is drawing increased attention from academics, public officials and landowners. Researchers at the University of Florida’s Center for Landscape Conservation Planning inventoried [...]

A rendering of a reimagined University Place in Chapel Hill, NC shows businesses and people enjoying an outdoor area

The Rebirth of University Place

Ram Realty Advisors has entered the final stages of a $135 million project to reimagine a more than 50-year-old shopping mall in the heart of Chapel Hill, N.C. Begun in 2018, the extensive redevelopment has turned the mall inside-out by tearing down a third of the space and creating an open-air shopping center with 350,000 [...]

A docked boat in a marina with a blue sky

A Tight Ship

The stiffest headwind most boaters face these days isn’t from a storm. It’s finding a place to tie up. Slips at marinas are so hard to find that Florida boat and yacht brokers advise clients not to buy a watercraft until they have first found somewhere to store it. “There’s just too many boats and [...]

Looking down a street in New York City from a high vantage point with tall buildings and orange clouds in the background

New York’s Local Law 97

New York City’s Green Energy Local Law 97 (LL97) is a significant component of the Climate Mobilization Act passed by the New York City Council in 2019. The New York City Mayor’s Office of Climate and Sustainability presents this law as “one of the most ambitious plans for reducing emissions in the nation.” One of [...]

A city skyline along water reflecting the buildings with graph lines overlaid on image

Predicting Property Returns

During times of market uncertainty — such as a financial crisis, pandemic or spike in interest rates — the illiquid nature of private equity real estate (PERE) leads to questionable valuations. Appraisals rely on recent transactions of comparable properties to estimate the most probable selling price for a property. But commercial property transactions typically drop [...]