Real estate investors in California may be interested in the Urban Land Institute’s latest forecast for the period between 2016 and 2018. The biannual ‘ULI Real Estate Consensus Forecast” was released on April 6, but a synopsis of the report was available earlier. Compiled in March by the ULI Center for Capital Markets and Real Estate, the report covered information gathered from 38 different real estate economists.
In many areas of the ULI forecast , the economists’ predictions were markedly less optimistic than they had been in the previous forecast. For example, the latest ULI survey projects a 3.6-percent rise in commercial real estate prices over the next three years. According to the previous survey, commercial real estate prices were expected to rise by 6 percent in 2016 alone. Economists also predicted slower U.S. job growth and slower U.S. gross domestic product growth.
One area that economists were more optimistic about in the most recent ULI forecast was growth in the office and apartment rental markets. Economists expect the growth in revenue per available room to be less robust in the hotel sector between 2016 and 2018. According to the latest ULI survey, economists think that real estate transaction volumes reached their peak in 2015 when they hit $534 billion, and real estate transaction volumes are expected to go down to $475 billion in 2018.
Commercial real estate investors can often benefit from fluctuations in the real estate market. An attorney can often help an investor analyze the trends in the market and determine the optimal time to enter into a complex real estate transaction.