Letter from Queretaro Yesterday I wrote, “In this blog entry, I update you on our current (liquid) portfolio strategies.” A few paragraphs below that I mentioned as an example of risk assets something called “alternative assets”. In this blog entry, I want to spell out what I mean by liquid assets, illiquid assets, and alternative […]

Letter from Queretaro Feeling sober We believe that the world has changed. We are watchful and studious, bent on figuring out what exactly is emerging, in particular in Washington DC. We’re encouraging clients to think and act slowly, execute risk management plans methodically, bear in mind their investment horizons (ward off wasteful anxiety over short-term […]

Letter from Denver This is Part 2 of a two-part series to point out why investors of all types tend to like office properties and, for private (high net-worth) investors, offer office building selection criteria. In Part 1, we explained why funds focused on total returns and institutional investors will want sizeable portfolio allocations to […]

Letter from Denver Within the world of commercial real estate investing, office properties can be a controversial investment choice. Critics say that office buildings are more capital-intensive and more volatile in their returns than the other major property types—namely, multi-family, industrial, and retail. (Here we leave aside the hotel sector as in reality a hotel […]

Letter from Denver In “Colorado and the West are winning the post-recession marathon of job gains“, the Denver Post illustrates an important principle of commercial real estate investment, which is that the best way to make a successful property acquisition is to use a “top-down” approach—start with confidence in a geographic market on a macroeconomic […]

Letter from Queretaro According to polls, the risk that United Kingdom voters will choose to leave the European Union is about 50%. If voters choose to leave the EU, the likely outcome in our view is that all risk assets will sell off for 1–3 months and that, during this time, safe-haven asset classes will […]

Letter from Denver The Millennial Generation, it is often said, has a preference for walkable and compact “live/work/play” environments, and an aversion to the auto-centric suburban lifestyle of their Baby Boom parents. But, as mobility in most metropolitan areas deteriorates due to increasing traffic and a decreasing ability by the public sector to finance expansion […]

Letter from Denver I recently was in Phoenix to research the current state of that city’s office market and came across what seemed to be a puzzling statistic: the current Phoenix office vacancy rate is reported at 19%, much higher than in most office markets around the U.S. (by comparison, Denver’s office vacancy is currently […]

Letter from Denver Last in a series of “catchup” blog entries on noteworthy articles on U.S. commercial real estate (CRE) that have come across my screen since last February. I was struck by this headline from the Wall Street Journal: Turning point? U.S. commercial-property sales plunge in February($). I feel this is alarmist, as it […]

Letter from Denver Catch-up blog entry number three in a series! Morgan Stanley Says U.S. Commercial Real Estate Price Growth Will Be Flat contains a useful reminder investors that commercial real estate (“CRE”) returns are highly impacted by leverage but that people don’t always appreciate how quickly returns adjust when debt market conditions change—one more […]