Demystifying Investing

The obvious metaphor for Recession is Winter.  In winter the days are shorter and there are few opportunities for growth.  As bad as this latest Recession was in Portland, for Phoenix and Las Vegas it was like a Nuclear Winter. LENDERS During a recession risk adverse banks shut down lines of credit, increase Debt Service Coverage Ratios, lower Loan To Value requirements, and in some cases cease... Read More »

I liken the Expansion phase of the investment cycle to an analog in Nature: Summer.  If Recovery (Spring) is characterized by the creation of potential, Expansion is all about unleashing that.  A market that is in Expansion mode has a palpable energy: hiring is at the highest pace of any point in the cycle.  So are occupancy rates, rent growth and absorption.  Units that have been in the planning... Read More »

There’s no doubt that improvements in the long term fundamentals for multifamily investments have made them the darlings of commercial real estate.  I was talking yesterday  with a researcher at REIS, one of the nation’s most respected real estate tracking firms.  His company is predicting the  East Portland and Gresham submarkets apartment values to increase by a minimum of 4% a year... Read More »

Guest columnist Robert Poe-MBA, CCIM leads Kernors, a long time established real estate investment firm. Robert Poe:  First and foremost, always seek competent tax counsel when deciding to sell your commercial real estate. In addition to capital gains taxes, commercial real estate sales also involve taxes on income, the property itself, and non-cash expenses. These need to be carefully analyzed in... Read More »

From Bloomberg: Rent increases replaced landlord giveaways as U.S. apartment vacancies dropped in the second quarter to the lowest in more than three years, bolstered by rising demand on the West Coast, according to Reis Inc. (REIS) The apartment vacancy rate fell to 6 percent in the three months ended June 30 from 6.2 percent in the first quarter and 7.8 percent a year earlier, the New York-based... Read More »