CRE | Weekly update (vol. 3)
Despite strong office sector employment growth, office fundamentals lag according to REIS.
REIS reported a 10 basis point uptick in national office vacancies to 16.5% in the first quarter with steady growth of 0.9%. However, there is great variance by individual market.
This appears to be a conundrum as office using employment has been steadily rising at rates much faster than broader job growth; the continued gains in "efficiency"
(I.e. less paper per employee) appear to the leading cause.
Consumer Confidence rebounds in April after slight decline in prior month.
The Conference Board reported that Consumer Confidence rose 1.7 points to 128.7 in April, reversing a slight decline in March. The Present Situations Index also grew 1.5 points to 159.1 and Expectations Index grew 1.9 points to 108.1.
Strong consumer sector demand should keep demand for most commercial real estate sectors high, especially multifamily, retail, and industrial as well as hotel.
