News

Dallas-Fort Worth Ranked as Top Area for Commercial Real Estate Investments

In a report by the Star-Telegram, Dallas-Fort Worth came out as the top area for commercial real estate investment. The results were from a survey of almost 1,500 real estate executives.

            The survey was released in the report provided by Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

            Following Dallas-Fort Worth are Austin and Charlotte, North Carolina, while New York and other big cities such as San Francisco and Boston, were viewed as less attractive.

            Mitch Roschelle, a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP's real estate advisory practice, said that real estate investors are now shifting from defensive investments to offensive ones. Roschelle went on to describe that they "are realizing that they need to go to those markets that are really creating jobs. The big gateway markets, while they're creating jobs incrementally, they're not creating as many jobs."

            According to Roschelle, "The Villes" -- which includes Nashville, Tennessee; Louisville, Kentucky; Knoxville, Tennessee and Jacksonville, Florida are now luring in more young people with smaller-scale retail, restaurants and night-life similar to trendy sections of New York and San Francisco, as well as with affordable home prices and jobs that are more mobile. Due to the soaring of the prices of the primary market in coasts, investors are now turning to secondary and tertiary like "the villes."

            According to the Star-Telegram, the growing economy that has diversified away from oil and into finance, medicine, technology and education has been one of the stepping stones of Dallas-Fort Worth in being number one in the rankings, as opposed to Houston that was based largely on what's seen as overbuilding in the wake of falling oil prices. Houston fell down the ranks from being the top last year to being number 30 this year.

            Roschelle also added that big cities such as New York and San Francisco are now seen to be growing in a slow and steady pace, compared to the aggressive returns of the secondary markets.

            According to the reports, investors are now worrying whether the high costs of the present market will prevent them from attracting the workers needed to keep their economies vibrant.


Join the Discussion
Real Time Analytics