Urbanexus Update - Issue #43
Urbanexus Update - Issue #43
Please scroll down for the weekly compilation of analysis, reporting and opinion about real estate and community development. Note that some links may lead to material that is behind a paywall.
The economy
We now have nearly 15 years’ worth of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that indicates how much the average civilian employee in the U.S. has been compensated.
Government shutdown affecting U.S. housing, mortgage markets Since the start of the U.S. Government shutdown on December 21, 2018, all aspects of the federal housing, mortgage, and programs of the real estate industry have been impacted.
Retail real estate
How much did online shopping eat into traditional retail in 2018? — www.citylab.com
It’s been a rough time for many prominent American retail chains—and the sector’s future prospects don’t look rosy. But “apocalypse” might be an overstatement. Some parts of the brick-and-mortar retail world are doing just fine, and despite pressure from online retail and some high-profile collapses—many driven by debt from leveraged buyouts—the brick-and-mortar retail sector is overall more limping than falling.
Real estate transactions
Ten ways to screw up a retail investment sale
Avoid these pitfalls when selling commercial real estate.
Construction defect
Repair plan for shuttered Transbay Transit Center is in the works — archpaper.com
Officials in approved plans to repair a pair of fractured beams that were discovered at the now-shuttered Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco several weeks after it opened in August 2018.
Excluding housing
White privilege diverts resources to halting needed housing inside the greater Seattle urban limit line — www.seattletimes.com It helps that the core group has organizing skills and includes energetic retirees and a stay-at-home mom, who can devote hundreds of hours to the effort.
A real estate leader
The forward thinking 82-year-old Selig, who is fit and active as someone half his age, has a kaleidoscope of colorful interests. While developing buildings is pure fun for him, he has other passions as well that most people know little about.
Design
What Hygge means and how to add more to your life Hygge is so much more than candles and fuzzy blankets. It’s about creating an environment of trust and good conversation with people you care about.
Bauhaus bus will travel the world to celebrate the school's centennial — archpaper.com
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus school by Walter Gropius, a bus modeled after the school’s historic workshop building in Dessau, Germany, will take to the streets worldwide.
Environment and resiliency
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions spiked in 2018 The nation is now far off course from what the Obama administration promised under the Paris agreement, leaving a big gap for the rest of the world to make up.
Climate change will reshape earth Three centuries ago, humans were intensely using just around 5 percent of the Earth’s land. Now, it’s almost half.