Real Estate News by GLG Council Members

If you distill the numbers in this latest report, 13% of all retail establishments in this country will close there doors this year. Not too worry though, says the International Council of Shopping Centers, since roughly the same number of stores open each year that close. Perhaps that has been true in past years but I don't expect it to be true this year or next. The impact will be significant...

Where do we go from here? Americans are so tired of being misplaced, sold out and lied to, they are simply confused about so many things. Jobs that pay a living wage are very hard to find, mix in the new marketplace for work and we have major problems moving across the street. Young adults view their parents home as a place to camp out and eat free, this in turn has placed a burden on the middle class....

As the underlying investments´returns may not be normally distributed the diversification benefits of certain fund of funds may be overestimated. The rising popularity  of fund of funds as pointed out by INREV  (http://www.propertyfundsworld.com/articles/detail.jsp?content_id=260361)  calls for a better understanding of their specific risk profiles.

It is possible to liquidate properties in today's market. That doesn't mean that it is either easy or painless. It behooves readers of such news to keep the grains of salt close at hand.

With the recent exodus of executives and the elimination of the quarterly dividend, this is a ship that cannot be righted. This is a company that should be conserving cash, not instituting a share buyback program. Besides, when 41% of the stock is held by insiders, one has to question both the wisdom and the motivation of such a move.  

Centro has bought a large portion of their portfolio on the basis of "re-positioning". These centers still have not reach their zenith yet and unfortunately the benefactor will be the eventual owner. It would have been in Centro's interest to bring in a JV partner rather than sell outright. Despite this fact, Centro still has good channels for new development and could pick up other new projects that...

As it turns out, gun dealers in Phoenix are supplying some/a bunch of the weapons which are being used in the drug wars below the Mexican border.  The Mexican Cartels send $ 15 Billion drugs to the U.S. and transports $ 10 Billion cash back to Mexico over the border.  As the article also tells us, the U.S. consumes more than half of the world’s drugs.  “Much of the Heroin, most of the...

The Peter G. Peterson foundation will confront the dangers of America’s $ 9.5 Trillion national debt.  The article quotes Peterson as saying “Over time, taxes would have to double to pay for the debt and that's unthinkable''. 

July 1 marked the beginning of a new fiscal year for most states and about one third of local governments, and, as a result of declining economic conditions, ushered in a period of cutback management and difficult decision making for many state and local leaders. Reduce taxes,reduce spending is the hue and cry from John Q. Public and understandably so.  However,we as voters sometimes shoot ourselves...

The knee-jerk reaction to this article is that we should all drop a 500 gal. fuel tank in our back yards, because soon there won't be any gas stations left!!  We are also led to believe that the gas station business is homogenous across the U.S. of A. - clearly not the case. The success of a gas station business, like any business, depends on management and their ability to cope with change. ...