Houston’s Near Northside Is Still Going Through A Transition

Global pandemic or not, just over a third of brokers across the country said they made more money in 2020 than in 2019. The news comes from a nationwide poll conducted in December by commercial real estate broker software company Apto and shared first with Bisnow.

It is true that the number of respondents who made more money in 2020 than in 2019 declined markedly from the 58% who reported higher year-over-year income at the end of 2019. But brokers stayed relatively stable despite the wild ride of a year the commercial real estate industry and the…

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Last year was a difficult one for the commercial mortgage-backed securities market, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been, experts now say. The coronavirus pandemic split CMBS according to property type, with hotels and retail taking the brunt of the crisis and everything else holding steady.

DBRS Morningstar now predicts that overall pandemic-related CRE valuation losses will be below that of the 2008-2009 downturn, even though properties backing loans that were sent to special servicing since March have suffered an average value decline of 24% since their origination, driven by losses in the hotel and retail sectors.

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The previous, tumultuous year concluded with a sense of optimism, especially for the commercial real estate sector. Distribution of coronavirus vaccines, developed and approved in record time, reached a public elated for anything that can help them return to some semblance of a normal routine.

“People in the real estate industry very badly want people to start coming back to the office, and vaccinations are the single best ways to get there,” Kastle Systems Chairman Mark Ein said. “Hopefully a year from now, virtually everyone is back. The question is how do we manage through the transition until then.”

As vaccinations hopefully pick up in coming months after slow starts in the U.S. and United Kingdom, landlords and building managers will eventually need to answer difficult questions about balancing the safety and security policies of different workplaces and making sure common areas respect the requests of different tenants. While vaccines have only recently been approved and will first be given to high-priority populations, these issues may need to be addressed sooner rather than later. So far, most property owners don't appear to have a strategy in place.

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