Latest Commercial Real Estate Market News & Investment Advice in Los Angeles
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The Economy Is Growing, But Real Estate Has Problems Coming
June, 2024
by Karl Niehaus, President, CREI
Economic Overview:
THE ECONOMY IS GROWING. CA unemployment is steady at 5.3%, while the USA is at 3.8%. That’s excellent, and the envy of most of the world. In fact, CA now has about 320,000 more employees than pre-pandemic. Considering CA’s population also decreased by over 400,000 residents since 2020, that is very impressive. Not only that, but the CA private sector output has grown by 10% and nationally by 8%. For landlords a growing economy with increasing consumer spending is...
read moreRetail, Office, Apartments & Industrial All Performing Differently in Current Market
April, 2023
by Karl Niehaus, President, CREI
Economic Overview:
THE ECONOMY IS AT FULL CAPACITY! Yes, there are questions about inflation and the Fed raising rates and its effect, but the economy is not in a recession. How can it be, when we are at 3.6% unemployment, over 10 million job openings, USA productivity running at capacity, and households with over $4 trillion in savings, almost 5 times more than pre-pandemic? The $4 trillion in savings is still allowing consumers to spend and thus drives demand and the economy. Could the...
read moreImproving Retail Sales Plus More Opportunities for Work and Business Expansion
March, 2022
by Karl Niehaus, President, CREI
Economic Overview:
CA RAMPING UP BUSINESS BUT HAS HURDLES: CA’s 7.3% unemployment is substantially higher than the national average of 4.6%. Even with rising transportation costs, shortages of truck drivers, a strong dollar, and the ongoing pandemic, CA exported 4.5% more goods internationally than a year ago and this is also higher than in November 2019 (pre-pandemic). The confusing thing is that contrary to the 7.3% unemployment, there are over 1.2 million job openings, which means...
read moreHigh Hopes That a COVID Vaccine Will Help Businesses Generate Income Once Again
January, 2021
by Karl Niehaus, President, CREI
Economic Overview:
AS THE VIRUS PEAKS WITH RISING UNEMPLOYMENT, residents are fleeing dense areas and downtowns into suburbs which is pushing up home prices in LA. Moving away from dense areas and the loss of income/employment have had significant impacts on rents. Apartment rents have declined most dramatically in expensive areas where rents have fallen roughly 7% YTD. 140,000 jobs were lost in December 2020 alone which means there are over 9 million fewer jobs now than in December 2019....
read moreE-Commerce Is More Effective With Physical Stores To Support It
September, 2020
by Karl Niehaus, President, CREI
Economic Overview:
CA UNEMPLOYMENT FALLS as 140K jobs were added in July. Unemployment dropped from 14.9% in June to 13.3%, which is still high but improving. Declining trade adversely affects employment and income. Unfortunately, CA exports were down 16.3% from June 2019 to 2020, as trade continued to combat unfavorable tariffs, weaker demand, and failure to contain Covid-19. Despite negative trade influences, trade did improve from May which was down 30%. Let’s hope for continued...
read moreEconomy In Longest Expansion In History
February, 2020
by Karl Niehaus, President, CREI
Commercial Overview:
RETAIL IS GOOD & BAD. Retail sales data from December increased 5.8% year over year, which is promising and up from 3.3% in November. Online spending played a key role to the disadvantage of brick-and-mortar sales and, in particular, the detriment of big box tenants (as shown by the graph). The rising tide of strong consumer spending still negatively affected many retail businesses, but the survivors seem to be rising quite well.
Economic Overview:
ECONOMY IN LONGEST...
read moreA 1031 Exchange Interview
August, 2019
by Karl Niehaus, President, CREI
WELLS FARGO - a 1031 Exchange Interview:
For four decades, Rick Karl ran the show at Hollywood Dog Training School. Rick proved his mettle as a business owner during his four decades on the job, but as he approached the end of his career, he was met with a new set of challenges. Wells Fargo Works spoke with Rick about his strategies for navigating the transition into retirement.
Wells Fargo: What obstacles did you encounter when you first began thinking about retirement?
Rick:Succession was...
read moreThe Future of Retail?
April, 2019
by Karl Niehaus, President, CREI
Commercial Overview:
THE FUTURE OF RETAIL? The proliferation of the live-work-play lifestyle is among the chief tenets redefining retail. Health & wellness tenants are taking up space in shopping centers and malls across the country to fulfill the need. Walgreens is at the forefront of this trend, as it strives to combine healthcare, retail and technology. “We have customers & we have patients - 2 different businesses within 4 walls,” said Joe Brady, Walgreens’ divisional vice...
read moreRetail Sales Growing, For Now?
December, 2018
by Karl Niehaus, President, CREI
Commercial Overview:
LOS ANGELES IS LEGALIZING STREET VENDING, with regulations. Effective Jan 1st, 2019 vendors will be allowed to sell products on the street. Retail property owners have fought against street vending because vendors can block and discourage potential customers from entering retail stores, making the sites less desirable and pushing down rents. The approval was however granted based on safety concerns. Before vendors created public safety concerns from several different...
read moreVacancies Hit All-Time High
August, 2018
by Karl Niehaus, President, CREI
Commercial Overview:
RETAIL VACANCIES HIT ALL-TIME HIGH, there is more vacant retail space than ever, but don't panic, it's contained to a relatively small number of chains. Retailers plan to close a record 111 million SF across the country this year. That exceeds last year's record of 105 million SF. While the overall retail vacancy rate of 4.6% has been consistent for several quarters and points to a stable retail environment, just five retailers are accounting for 55% of total vacated...
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Featured Commercial Property
7401 Lankershim Blvd, North Hollywood, CA 91605
$2.20/SF
