Powering Opportunity Everywhere

The latest SitusAMC Insights Top 5 Bottom 5 Metro ranking demonstrates how the COVID-19 pandemic continues to influence commercial real estate (CRE) performance in metro areas across the U.S. Our proprietary quantitative and qualitative analysis ranks the top investment opportunities for each of the major property types — apartment, industrial, retail, office — from a relative value vs. price perspective, using the weighted average of NPI-NCREIF total returns across CRE sectors. Check out the slideshow to see the major metro leaders and laggards in the second quarter.

An estimated one in three Americans experienced a weather-related disaster this summer, including hurricanes, tornados, flash flooding and fires. Hurricane Ida barreled into Louisiana on August 29 and made its way Northeast, killing an estimated 82 people, and setting the stage for one of the costliest U.S. mainland hurricanes on record. Meanwhile, July ranked as the hottest month since record-keeping began. California’s Dixie Fire, which began that month, consumed nearly 725,000 acres, making it the second largest such event in state history.

Mortgage lending is a data-intensive endeavor, and the traditional loan process is time-consuming and bogged down in manual paperwork. But technology is streamlining and speeding the process for originators and their clients, as well as producing more accurate underwriting to reduce risk (and wasted time) for lenders and brokers. Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital products among consumers, and they expect less friction in their transactions.

In a post-pandemic world, business leaders are radically rethinking their approach to hiring and managing talent. The COVID-19 crisis has emphasized the need to respond nimbly to chaotic change, manage fixed costs, accelerate productivity and innovate more quickly. Many firms are looking to reposition, seeking critical skill sets and experience to help them evolve, innovate and stay agile amid rising disruption and volatility.

A three-year, groundbreaking project to modernize data standards for private-label, residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) is nearly complete. Spearheaded by SitusAMC Senior Director Julia Curran, the effort involves updating a massive set of data with unified definitions, enabling any party in the industry to more accurately evaluate the quality of a loan asset. The new standards, currently open for comment until mid-November, also pave the way for faster, more efficient securitizations.