Blackstone Group's purchase of a US$18.7 billion industrial portfolio shows e-commerce continues to boost the sector

While consumers and businesses remain upbeat, markets are growing increasingly concerned about the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China. The equity markets pulled back last week while the yield curve turned more inverted. This occurred at a time when other signs of slowing in the economy continue to emerge. Housing sales looked a bit weak despite lower mortgage rates and a decline in durable goods orders, roughly in-line with expectations. The Fed is still sitting on hold with its belief that the recent weakness in inflation is transitory. For CRE, things still look healthy but key questions relevant to its future are coming into focus.

The largest private development in the history of North America is achieving office rents that are nearly 30 percent greater than the Manhattan market average

Foot Locker's investment in retail startup Rockets of Awesome brings the brand to brick and mortar stores

Booming healthcare growth means real estate is paramount

The trade policy situation continued to cause whiplash in sentiment last week. After threatening tariffs on all Mexican imports two weeks ago, the U.S. administration backed away from those threats at the end of last week. While we and the markets view that as a positive development, the quickly shifting sands of policy make analyzing and forecasting the economy even more challenging than usual. On the labor market front, we believe that May’s data overstates the pace of slowdown and don’t see that one metric as being sufficient to trigger a rate cut in 2019. Economic momentum is slowing, but not as rapidly as May’s labor data implied. Either way, the Fed now sits squarely in the spotlight with everyone watching their every move. For commercial real estate (CRE), the underlying economy still looks supportive of fundamentals. But that raises our key concern – the low interest rates coupled with solid fundamentals raises the specter of an asset bubble, including CRE.

As the coworking trend continues to gather pace, restaurants and pubs in cities around the world are now formally opening up their space for start-ups and freelancers.

Rethinking retail: landlords redevelop and repurpose retail space

The South market’s overall absorption was positive for the third straight quarter, totaling nearly 275,000 square feet over that time or 2 percent of total inventory. Read more in the Q1 2019 insight.

For the first time, asking rents eclipse $100 per square foot triple net for new construction in Kendall Square. Read more in the Q1 2019 insight.

128 Mass Pike rents hit new peak for current economic cycle, with overall rents growing 4.2 percent for year-over-year. Read more in the Q1 2019 insight.

The Back Bay market continues to tighten with availabilities down to 6.4 percent, the lowest in 18 years. Read more in the Q1 2019 insight.