In this article we ask the question, “Which came first, the market value or the cap rate?" Does that question sound familiar? It should, since it really is like the classic “chicken or egg” conundrum. The fact is cap rates do not determine market values and market values do not determine cap rates. But, each…

Non-traded REITs utilize different types of financial contracts to hedge their variable rate debts to protect themselves financially from changes in interest rates...

The median monthly total return for 16 continuously offered nontraded REIT programs (“NAV REITs”) was 0.21% in July, compared to just 0.01% in June. Ten of the 16 reported positive total returns.

A recent article by Peter Grant, who covers commercial real estate trends for the Wall Street Journal, covered a lot of territory and trends in the commercial real estate space. (See “Wall Street Is Ready to Scoop Up Commercial Real Estate on the Cheap” August 15, WSJ) Like pulling a thread from a sweater, digging…

Judging by the number advertisements heard regularly promoting holding gold as a hedge against inflation and protection should the U.S. economy crash, one would conclude that Americans are turning to investments in gold bullion or equivalents in large numbers. The facts don’t support that conclusion. As the chart below illustrates, spot gold prices (green line)…

An August 6 Wall Street Journal article asked the question: “Is There a Limit to Americans' Self-Storage Addiction?” And answered its questions with: “Billions of Dollars Say Nope.” “There are self-storage facilities around the world, but nowhere have they been more popular to rent and profitable to own than in the U.S., thanks to Americans'…

As interest rates continue to rise, investors in Blackstone’s business development company (BDC) and interval fund are seeing a similar spike in distribution payments, reflecting the asset manager’s profit-generating prowess amid extended economic turbulence. On Blue Vault’s July 26 webinar, A Deeper Look at Blackstone, Senior Financial Analyst Luke Schmidt said both funds are performing…

Using Blue Vault’s exclusive database, we looked at the properties held by nontraded REITs as of March 31, 2023, to see if those assets could be categorized as “older, low-end malls”...

The U.S. has a “housing shortage” and a popular part of that theme today is an “affordable housing” shortage. Honest economists would have to question that conclusion...