I recently had lunch with a close friend of mine and we talked about industry organizations and the adage: "You get out what you put in" came up. In this day where there are a lot of great organizations and everyone is so incredibly busy with our booming economy, how do you get the most out of your membership?

I have a few thoughts that I think work whether you are a veteran of the organization or a newbie:

There are growing expectations that the Fed will raise interest rates by the end of this year and, some predict, as early as September. Bisnow polled 10 of the country's top economists to find out what a Fed rate hike really means for commercial real estate.

Annual quarterly effective rent growth for US apartments reached 5.0% for the first time in four years, says Axiometrics. As a further indicator of multifamily’s ongoing strength, all of the top 50 markets tracked by the Dallas-based research and analysis firm showed positive quarterly effective rent growth in the second quarter, compared to 36 markets in Q1 of this year and 14 markets in Q4 of 2014.

On Wednesday the Internal Revenue Service quietly proposed a rule that would effectively do what numerous proposed acts and measures could not: ban companies such as private equity firms from converting the management fees they receive from their investors -- fees that would normally be taxed as ordinary income -- into capital contributions invested in their funds. These are taxed at a much lower tax rate.

At the beginning of July, Capital Metro released two sets of data: one showing huge growth in revenue, and the other showing that ridership is declining in spite of that increased revenue.

Clouse said his development team obtained a site permit the week of July 20 and demolition on an existing warehouse will begin by August 1. The project — 97 residential units and 42,000 square feet of commercial space — is expected to be finished by fall 2016.

Downtown Austin’s hotel construction boom continues, as do new hotel openings. The latest to welcome guests is the 366-room Westin Austin Downtown at 310 E. Fifth Street, developed by White Lodging. It officially opened its doors on July 16, bringing the number of central business district hotel rooms up to nearly 8,000.

The citywide average quoted rental rate increased by 1.6 percent between quarters from $8.21 to $8.34 per square foot, and increased 18.5 percent on a year-to-year basis from $7.04 per square foot.

The quirky, counter-cultural San Francisco so many of us fell in love with is almost gone now, destroyed by high housing costs. We’ve lost not only the politics, but all kinds of cultural experimentation that just doesn’t thrive in places that are expensive.

The US Supreme Court’s recent upholding of the Affordable Care Act will mean continued demand for healthcare space in low-cost retail settings, and fiercer competition for medical real estate among investors.

One problem facing the office real estate market is the trend of companies using less space per employee as employers shift from individual offices and high-walled cubicles toward an open-plan or hot desking layout.

The development company’s entry into the healthcare real estate arena is in response to the increasing number of insured patients and the ongoing shift in healthcare to an ambulatory, retail-like delivery model, according to the firm.

Date: 8/12/2015
Time: 8:00 am - 1:30 pm
JW Marriott
110 E 2nd St

Date: 8/26/2015
Time: 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Urbanspace
801 W 5th St #100

Date: 8/27/2015
Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Online Webinar

This webinar serves as a great introduction to the Argus Valuation software for those who have little or no previous experience with the software, or for those who are interested in how it works.

The presenters will take it slow - starting with what you see when you first open the program. They'll take you through how to build an ARGUS model "from scratch" - without relying on the ARGUS Wizard or an existing template.

The presenters will then explain the initial set up of the Property Description pages and introduce the various ways that the Argus software can assist anyone in the valuation of any commercial real estate property.