Annual transaction volume on land deals is still falling well short of the pre-recession peak that reached $31.2 billion in 2007. Buyers have taken the foot off the gas a bit in 2019, with year-to-date sales at the end of the third quarter totaling $14.3 billion, which is down 16 percent compared to the same period in 2018, according to RCA.
A recent report from the company Emsi, which analyzes labor markets, finds that most of the big cities attracting the most talent are Sun Belt metro areas such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, Dallas-Fort Worth and Jacksonville, Florida, cities that are not usually the first places that come to mind in conversations about tech or finance. A number of smaller counties scattered throughout the country also perform surprisingly well.
Facebook is in negotiations for a 700,000-sq.-ft. Midtown Manhattan lease, reports the Wall Street Journal. San Francisco approves a plan to convert two Nordstrom floors at Westfield San Francisco Centre to office space, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. These are among today’s must reads from around the commercial real estate industry.