Living the ‘High Life’ in Dubai

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

The torch has been passed: The world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa (2,717 feet), opened yesterday in the city of Dubai, passing the Taipei 101 (1,670 feet) by a wide margin. (Note: Until recently, the tower was known as the Burj Dubai—more on that in a few paragraphs.) The tower will be a mixed-use building, with condos, hotel rooms, retail shops, and offices, and the centerpiece of a new complex in the heart of this most well-known Middle Eastern metropolis.

Now, any time the world’s-tallest-building record is broken, it’s significant. But this is extra significant because the preceding record was absolutely shattered. It’s something like Albert Pujols or Ryan Howard hitting 100 home runs in a single baseball season, or someone beating Usain Bolt in the 100-meter dash by four seconds. Read more

Top 10 Real Estate Developments of the ’00s: #5

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

Today, we start on the bottom-half of the top real estate developments of the decade with something that really came into play in the past year: Read more

2010: A Major Test for Commercial

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

The next year or two may be a “test of survival” for anyone in the commercial real estate sector, but the upswing could be very lucrative for the ones who make it through that period. This was the overarching message coming from panelists and speakers at the Urban Land Institute’s Fall 2009 meeting in San Francisco last week, as well as ULI’s Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2010 report, which was released at the event.

Right now, the consensus among industry experts seems to be forming around a slower, “L-shaped” recovery in the commercial market, with employment repeatedly being cited as a key factor in determining exactly when that recovery may come. The discussion was well-timed, seeing as how the U.S. unemployment rate topped 10 percent last month, reaching levels we haven’t seen in a quarter century. Predictions as to when we’d see real job creation again ranged from late 2010 to 2012. Read more

Mental Recession Redux?

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

In July 2008, in the heat of the presidential election, McCain campaign advisor and former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm caused some controversy when he seemingly characterized the United States as “a nation of whiners” who were plagued by a “mental recession.” In other words, the economic problems of the time were all in people’s minds.

Events since then would appear to controvert Gramm’s argument. The economic troubles manifesting themselves at the time—including considerable overleveraging among major banks, increasing unemployment, and rising mortgage defaults—were not just figments of our collective imaginations.

However, in spite of his flawed analysis, Gramm may have been on to something with his concept of a mental recession. In fact, we may be heading into one right now. Read more

New-Growth Indicators: What Do You Look for?

By Mariwyn Evans, Commercial Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

If you think you have a good nose for where the next new area of development or redevelopment will be in your market, we want to hear from you. Contact Mariwyn Evans at mevans@realtors.org by Sept. 25. Also, take our poll on good signs of future growth in an area.