Kim Betancourt, CRE, and Jim Costello, CRE, recently served on a panel in REIT Magazine on the outlook on the economy and real estate in 2018.
In the piece, titled “Economists See Strong U.S. Fundamentals Boding Well For Real Estate”, Costello and Betancourt were asked about which trends are being affirmed and which are being undercut.
“Jim Costello: Retail, in particular, might be a bit oversold. There are clear winners and losers. You are dealing with a structural downturn in the Midwest, with all of the old manufacturing jobs gone away, so the infrastructure there just doesn’t have the value it used to have. Yet, there are fantastic assets sold at very high prices in other regions.
Kim Betancourt: It’s a popular story line that baby boomers are moving into multifamily rentals, but it’s not this huge movement. In 2015, 12 percent of people 55 or older were renting multifamily apartments, up from 11 percent 10 years earlier.”