Many corporations continue to binge on cheap debt to inflate their stock prices -- enriching their current executives and shareholders at the expense of future growth and earnings.  However, when interest rates inevitably rise and/or earnings fall, stock prices will plummet and workers (i.e. consumers) will be fired so those companies can continue paying the interest to avoid default on their debt. This explains why the Fed keeps dropping the rates despite full employment ... Read more

California lawmakers passed a statewide rent control bill to address a worsening housing crisis in the state where millions of people are paying more than half their monthly income in rent.  The bill is meant to address rising costs in cities like San Francisco, where rent has risen steadily for years and peaked at 6% annual growth in 2015, according to CoStar Analytics.  The bill affects an estimated 8 million renters as it prohibits landlords from hiking rents more ... Read more

Online retailer Amazon has spent the past two decades luring shoppers out of stores and onto the internet, leading a retail transformation resulting in a wake of dead malls. Now the Seattle-based company is buying more of those empty shopping centers, converting them into warehouses for processing deliveries to consumer doorsteps.  The company plans to open two more Ohio warehouses, including one at the site of a closed mall in Akron, the third shopping center in northeastern Ohio the company has ... Read more

Data from the National Association of Realtors suggests a housing bubble may be on the verge or bursting in some markets, like coastal California. Overall, U.S. home prices in the second quarter were up 4.3% vs. a year earlier to $279,600, with 16 markets posting declines. That’s a slight appreciation dip from averaging 5.5% annual gains in 2016-2018, a period when just eight U.S. markets were losers.  Silicon Valley prices in California took the nation’s second-biggest loss in the quarter: a ... Read more

Regal Properties represented 5 TICs in multiple 1031 exchanges in the recent purchase of a 54,750 square foot shopping center, predominantly leased by national credit tenants, located within the desired Southern California retail market of Hemet.  The below replacement cost price of $8,600,000 equates to an 8.37% cap rate with a 13% leveraged cash on cash return for a high-performing retail center shadow anchored by Stater Bros Supermarket (NAP), a regionally dominant grocer, and junior anchored by CVS and Dollar Tree.  ... Read more