With mortgage rates dropping nearly a point to 3% it’s a great time to consider re-financing, taking that equity and re-investing in investment property! Call us for a list of lenders in our area.

Thanks to BusinessWeek magazine for ranking our town of Moscow as one of the country’s finest!! Click on attached link to view. Hope you and yours have a very safe Thanksgiving.

http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/20111115/the-best-places-to-raise-your-kids-2012/slides/13

Best Place to Raise Kids in Idaho: Moscow
Nearby city: Pullman, Wash.
Population: 23,689
Median family income: $58,124
Avg. school math score: 91.01 (State avg.: 80)
Avg. school reading score: 90.41 (State avg.: 82.63)

Universities have a big presence in Moscow, which is home to the University of Idaho and just across the state line from Washington State University. Camping, mountain biking, snowmobiling, fishing, skiing, and hunting opportunities abound, according to community website moscow.com. Live entertainment is also popular in Moscow, including the university’s Jazz Festival, the Rendezvous in the Park summer music festival, and summer theater.

Falling Cap Rates, Short Supply Compel Investors to Revisit the Development Option

By Randyl Drummer

August 17, 2011

Investors continue to prefer U.S. apartment buildings over most commercial properties, even commercial office space, as total multifamily sales volume jumped nearly 80% in the second quarter over the same perioud last year.

Although still just a fraction of its mid-2007 peak, the nearly $15 billion in sales in the quarter brought total investment for the first half of 2011 to $24.5 billion, according to CoStar Group data.

The average per-unit price of apartment properties reached $88,500 in the quarter — the highest since the third quarter of 2008, said CoStar Global Strategist Michael Cohen during CoStar’s Mid-Year 2011 Multifamily Review & Forecast.

Meanwhile, strong renter demand continues to push down apartment vacancy rates and nudge up rents. With capitalization rates for existing properties seeing strong compression in some high-flying markets, larger multifamily developers have responded by starting to ramp up their development pipelines with new projects.

Top coastal markets continued to dominate sales volume in the first half of 2011, including Washington, D.C with $2.6 billion; Los Angeles, $2.3 billion and the San Francisco Bay Area, $2.1 billion. In Atlanta, where investors have sought a large number of distressed properties, sales totaled $1.3 billion in the first six months. In Phoenix, a housing bust market where fundamentals have picked up markedly, also logged $1.3 billion in sales.

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For the second quarter, the top five transaction markets were New York City, with $1.35 billion; D.C., $1.3 billion, Los Angeles, $1.21 billion; Atlanta, $764 million and San Francisco, $689 million. Those markets accounted for about 36% of all sales volume nationwide during the quarter, with CBDs and well-located submarkets seeing the lion™s share of deals.

Institutional investors were by far the most active net apartment buyers, with net purchases of $1.6 billion on total acquisitions of $3.9 billion. REITs, private equity and owner/users were also net buyers, while REITs were also net sellers in a few markets such as Portland, Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area and Atlanta.

Average apartment capitalization rates continued to fall in the second quarter to slightly below 7%, while weighed average cap rates, driven by the large high-priced transactions in prime markets, declined to 5.7%. However, cap rates for mid-size value-add and opportunity deals are also declining. Cap rates on smaller transactions remain in a holding pattern.

Top deals in the second quarter included the acquisition of a 25% interest in a 20-property foreclosed portfolio by The Related Cos. from Fannie Mae for about $300 million; TIAA-CREF™s acquisition of The Corner at 200 West 72nd St. in New York from Gotham Organization and Phillip International for $209 million, or 1.07 million per unit; and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board™s $84 million acquisition of a 44% interest in a 654-unit property in Seattle from New Tower Trust Co.

Supply Tight Now, But Construction Starts Are Rising

Job growth has been the traditional source of apartment demand in the past. But in this cycle much of the demand is coming from many former homeowners who have become renters since the beginning of the housing crisis. That trend, combined with a growing number of young people forming households, is driving competition for a diminishing supply of apartments, powering the improvement in apartment fundamental since 2009.

CoStar forecasts total supply additions of just 30,000 units in the 54 largest markets in 2011, just one-third of the pre-recession average of apartment delivered between 2003 and 2008. However, multifamily construction starts are starting to tick up, with more than 70,000 starts in the first two quarters of 2011, suggesting a rise in completions in coming years, particularly in the 2013-2015 time period, Cohen said.

“It™s worth paying attention to the supply front,” Cohen said. “This is where I think the apartment market could be a victim of its own success. While we are forecasting below-average annual supply growth, we need to monitor the permitting data and the starts data.”

Vacancies, Rent Concessions Continue to Decline

Renter demand, while not at the outsized levels of 2010, remains very strong across the board, led by the fast-growing southern metros and the rebound in Detroit. Demand growth equaled about 66,000 units in the first half compared to the extraordinary increase of 105,000 units in the first six months of 2010, which was the strongest since 2005. However, the 45,000 units absorbed in the most recent quarter was more than the absorption of the two previous quarters combined, Cohen noted.

Just read this  terrific article on the new Big Box trend.   Hoping to see Target here on the Palouse someday…I hope…Sigh…

Mar 30, 2011 8:06 AM, By Elaine Misonzhnik

As U.S. chain retailers absorb the lessons of the Great Recession, many big-box chains have started to shrink average store footprints to reflect the growing importance of multi-channel shopping, adapt to urban settings and recognize the need to optimize portfolios.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Best Buy Co. Inc. and Gap Inc., among others, all have small concepts in the works or are adapting existing ones. These smaller store formats should allow the retailers to maximize profitability and open more stores in closer proximity to each other, say three retail consultants and a retail real estate broker Retail Traffic spoke to.

Wal-Mart Stores and Target have been the most high-profile examples of this trend.

To view a gallery of eight chains emphasizing smaller concepts, click here.

In 2011, Wal-Mart Stores plans to open between 30 and 40 smaller format stores, representing a combination of its Walmart Market and Walmart Express units, according to a company spokesman. Walmart Express stores will measure up to 30,000 square feet and will focus on grocery products and a limited selection of general merchandise. The company is already working on two Walmart Express stores in Chicago and three in Northwest Arkansas.

Walmart Market stores, a rebranded version of Walmart Neighborhood Markets, average 40,000 square feet in size and concentrate on grocery products.

Meanwhile, on Feb. 15, Target Corp. unveiled its CityTarget concept, with stores ranging from 60,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet. Full-line Target stores range from 128,000 square feet to 135,000 square feet.

The CityTarget stores will carry a reduced, optimized product selection and will be located in densely populated urban markets”the company is looking at a minimum of 50,000 people living within two miles of the stores, according to a Target spokesperson. Target plans to open four CityTarget stores in 2012, in Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco, and is exploring opportunities in additional areas of the country.

œBased on extensive research, we knew that our brand was very appealing to an urban demographic, says Target™s spokesperson. œSo we had a goal to better reach those urban areas and what™s really great is the flexibility of this format.

The turn towards smaller, urban stores also comes at a time when the outlook for power centers remains clouded, providing further impetus for big-box chains to diversify real estate strategies.

On March 24, during its fourth quarter 2010 earnings call with analysts, executives with the electronics chain Best Buy talked about how at the same time that the company is slowing growth in the big-box segment, it will step up expansion of its smaller Best Buy Mobile stores. In 2011, the retailer plans to open 150 mobile stores, giving it a total of 325 by the end of the year. Best Buy Mobile stores range from 1,300 square feet to 3,000 square feet, a fraction of full-line Best Buy stores, which range from 20,000 square feet to 45,000 square feet in size.

Meanwhile, Gap Inc. is shrinking the average size of its Old Navy stores from about 25,000 square feet to approximately 10,000 square feet, according to Ivan L. Friedman, president and CEO of RCS Real Estate Advisors, a New York City-based retail real estate consulting firm. In addition, many supermarket chains, including Giant Eagle, Trader Joe™s, Publix and Fresh Market, have been pursuing smaller formats for several years now.

And last year, the Sports Authority launched a smaller, more upscale concept called S.A. Elite. S.A. Elite stores will range from 12,000 square feet to 15,000 square feet and will focus on higher-end products from many of the same brands found at full-line Sports Authority stores. The company plans to pursue locations on urban streets and in high-end malls for this new concept. Full-line Sports Authority stores are about 40,000 square feet.

œRetailers looking for smaller footprints has been a trend since the recession started, says Cynthia Groves, senior managing director of global corporate services with Newmark Knight Frank, a real estate services firm. œFrom a real estate perspective, what™s important to a retailer is they have to make their sales per square foot. The recession made them realize that they can get by with smaller square footage and have strong sales as a result.

Bang for your buck

Many chain store operators have taken a cue from Apple Inc.™s successful retail operation, says Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates Inc., a New York City-based retail consulting and investment banking firm. Even in the midst of the worst retailing year in recent history in 2009, Apple™s stores, which average 6,000 square feet and are located primarily in high-end malls and on high traffic urban thoroughfares, reported average sales of several thousand dollars per square foot.

What™s more, Apple™s strategy of stocking only a limited number of products in its physical stores has helped reduce its real estate costs and created synergy between its brick-and-mortar and online sales channels, Davidowitz notes. Customers come to Apple™s physical locations to test-drive new gadgets, but they then have the option to get items shipped to them directly from Apple™s warehouses. This helps drive business both in-store and on the web, a critical goal for many retailers today, according to Groves.

In addition, the discounters Wal-Mart and Target face increasing competition from the dollar store chains, many of which already operate smaller stores in urban markets and are able to beat the giants on productivity, he adds.

œWhat these big retailers realized is that these smaller stores are more convenient and the economics of running them are better, Davidowitz says. œWith a scaled-down selection, you can get a huge return on investment, mainly because of lower expenses and lower investment in each store.

Part of the rationale for expanding through smaller units has been logistics”it would be virtually impossible to find 200,000 contiguous square feet of retail space in the middle of Manhattan, so big-box chains have no choice but to downsize to enter certain markets.

But another benefit of operating smaller stores is that the strategy allows a retailer to potentially open more stores within the same trade area, promoting its brand, according to Matt Winn, managing director of retail consulting with Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate services firm. Since the smaller units can carry only a limited selection of merchandise, retailers can cut down on cannibalization by stocking up on different products in stores that are located in close proximity.

œDepending on the concept, that could be a very smart strategy because it allows people, as they think of your brand, to see that you are on the next corner, Winn notes.

Cost vs. return

Smaller stores might not necessarily translate into lower real estate costs, however. In many of the urban markets the retailers are targeting, including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, the sky-high rents per square foot will likely minimize any savings on overall real estate costs, Friedman says. A smaller specialty retailer might be able to save on common area maintenance (CAM) charges by opening smaller stores, but big box anchor tenants like Target and Wal-Mart normally pay rents based on percentage of sales and would not realize significant savings by pursuing smaller units in large cities.

Instead, the name of the game will be sales productivity. Locations in high density urban markets draw tremendous foot traffic, Friedman notes. The combination of smaller footprint and higher traffic should help drive average sales per square foot.

œIf you have that much traffic, you can afford those astronomical rents, Friedman says.

The challenge is that many of the big-box operators have limited experience opening stores in urban markets. Their strategy up till now has been cookie-cutter, notes Davidowitz”most are used to operating stores in formats with very clearly defined square footage and layout criteria. In cities like New York, that will no longer be possible. The retailers will have to adjust to working with a multitude of different layouts and size configurations, to devote more time to securing zoning permits and to coexist with non-retail co-tenants. What™s more, site selection will have to be much more precise than it has been for multi-tenant suburban shopping centers.

œUrban real estate requires a whole different mindset, Davidowitz says. œThe whole idea of ˜I am going to get an exact prototype,™ which is the way chain stores have always grown, is out the window. Your position on the block can make or break you in New York and which corner you are on can make a difference of 25 percent in your sales. Urban real estate is a whole new world, which they are going to have to learn.

Just read this  terrific article on the new Big Box trend.   Hoping to see Target here on the Palouse someday…I hope…Sigh…

Mar 30, 2011 8:06 AM, By Elaine Misonzhnik

As U.S. chain retailers absorb the lessons of the Great Recession, many big-box chains have started to shrink average store footprints to reflect the growing importance of multi-channel shopping, adapt to urban settings and recognize the need to optimize portfolios.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Best Buy Co. Inc. and Gap Inc., among others, all have small concepts in the works or are adapting existing ones. These smaller store formats should allow the retailers to maximize profitability and open more stores in closer proximity to each other, say three retail consultants and a retail real estate broker Retail Traffic spoke to.

Wal-Mart Stores and Target have been the most high-profile examples of this trend.

To view a gallery of eight chains emphasizing smaller concepts, click here.

In 2011, Wal-Mart Stores plans to open between 30 and 40 smaller format stores, representing a combination of its Walmart Market and Walmart Express units, according to a company spokesman. Walmart Express stores will measure up to 30,000 square feet and will focus on grocery products and a limited selection of general merchandise. The company is already working on two Walmart Express stores in Chicago and three in Northwest Arkansas.

Walmart Market stores, a rebranded version of Walmart Neighborhood Markets, average 40,000 square feet in size and concentrate on grocery products.

Meanwhile, on Feb. 15, Target Corp. unveiled its CityTarget concept, with stores ranging from 60,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet. Full-line Target stores range from 128,000 square feet to 135,000 square feet.

The CityTarget stores will carry a reduced, optimized product selection and will be located in densely populated urban markets”the company is looking at a minimum of 50,000 people living within two miles of the stores, according to a Target spokesperson. Target plans to open four CityTarget stores in 2012, in Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco, and is exploring opportunities in additional areas of the country.

œBased on extensive research, we knew that our brand was very appealing to an urban demographic, says Target™s spokesperson. œSo we had a goal to better reach those urban areas and what™s really great is the flexibility of this format.

The turn towards smaller, urban stores also comes at a time when the outlook for power centers remains clouded, providing further impetus for big-box chains to diversify real estate strategies.

On March 24, during its fourth quarter 2010 earnings call with analysts, executives with the electronics chain Best Buy talked about how at the same time that the company is slowing growth in the big-box segment, it will step up expansion of its smaller Best Buy Mobile stores. In 2011, the retailer plans to open 150 mobile stores, giving it a total of 325 by the end of the year. Best Buy Mobile stores range from 1,300 square feet to 3,000 square feet, a fraction of full-line Best Buy stores, which range from 20,000 square feet to 45,000 square feet in size.

Meanwhile, Gap Inc. is shrinking the average size of its Old Navy stores from about 25,000 square feet to approximately 10,000 square feet, according to Ivan L. Friedman, president and CEO of RCS Real Estate Advisors, a New York City-based retail real estate consulting firm. In addition, many supermarket chains, including Giant Eagle, Trader Joe™s, Publix and Fresh Market, have been pursuing smaller formats for several years now.

And last year, the Sports Authority launched a smaller, more upscale concept called S.A. Elite. S.A. Elite stores will range from 12,000 square feet to 15,000 square feet and will focus on higher-end products from many of the same brands found at full-line Sports Authority stores. The company plans to pursue locations on urban streets and in high-end malls for this new concept. Full-line Sports Authority stores are about 40,000 square feet.

œRetailers looking for smaller footprints has been a trend since the recession started, says Cynthia Groves, senior managing director of global corporate services with Newmark Knight Frank, a real estate services firm. œFrom a real estate perspective, what™s important to a retailer is they have to make their sales per square foot. The recession made them realize that they can get by with smaller square footage and have strong sales as a result.

Bang for your buck

Many chain store operators have taken a cue from Apple Inc.™s successful retail operation, says Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates Inc., a New York City-based retail consulting and investment banking firm. Even in the midst of the worst retailing year in recent history in 2009, Apple™s stores, which average 6,000 square feet and are located primarily in high-end malls and on high traffic urban thoroughfares, reported average sales of several thousand dollars per square foot.

What™s more, Apple™s strategy of stocking only a limited number of products in its physical stores has helped reduce its real estate costs and created synergy between its brick-and-mortar and online sales channels, Davidowitz notes. Customers come to Apple™s physical locations to test-drive new gadgets, but they then have the option to get items shipped to them directly from Apple™s warehouses. This helps drive business both in-store and on the web, a critical goal for many retailers today, according to Groves.

In addition, the discounters Wal-Mart and Target face increasing competition from the dollar store chains, many of which already operate smaller stores in urban markets and are able to beat the giants on productivity, he adds.

œWhat these big retailers realized is that these smaller stores are more convenient and the economics of running them are better, Davidowitz says. œWith a scaled-down selection, you can get a huge return on investment, mainly because of lower expenses and lower investment in each store.

Part of the rationale for expanding through smaller units has been logistics”it would be virtually impossible to find 200,000 contiguous square feet of retail space in the middle of Manhattan, so big-box chains have no choice but to downsize to enter certain markets.

But another benefit of operating smaller stores is that the strategy allows a retailer to potentially open more stores within the same trade area, promoting its brand, according to Matt Winn, managing director of retail consulting with Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate services firm. Since the smaller units can carry only a limited selection of merchandise, retailers can cut down on cannibalization by stocking up on different products in stores that are located in close proximity.

œDepending on the concept, that could be a very smart strategy because it allows people, as they think of your brand, to see that you are on the next corner, Winn notes.

Cost vs. return

Smaller stores might not necessarily translate into lower real estate costs, however. In many of the urban markets the retailers are targeting, including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, the sky-high rents per square foot will likely minimize any savings on overall real estate costs, Friedman says. A smaller specialty retailer might be able to save on common area maintenance (CAM) charges by opening smaller stores, but big box anchor tenants like Target and Wal-Mart normally pay rents based on percentage of sales and would not realize significant savings by pursuing smaller units in large cities.

Instead, the name of the game will be sales productivity. Locations in high density urban markets draw tremendous foot traffic, Friedman notes. The combination of smaller footprint and higher traffic should help drive average sales per square foot.

œIf you have that much traffic, you can afford those astronomical rents, Friedman says.

The challenge is that many of the big-box operators have limited experience opening stores in urban markets. Their strategy up till now has been cookie-cutter, notes Davidowitz”most are used to operating stores in formats with very clearly defined square footage and layout criteria. In cities like New York, that will no longer be possible. The retailers will have to adjust to working with a multitude of different layouts and size configurations, to devote more time to securing zoning permits and to coexist with non-retail co-tenants. What™s more, site selection will have to be much more precise than it has been for multi-tenant suburban shopping centers.

œUrban real estate requires a whole different mindset, Davidowitz says. œThe whole idea of ˜I am going to get an exact prototype,™ which is the way chain stores have always grown, is out the window. Your position on the block can make or break you in New York and which corner you are on can make a difference of 25 percent in your sales. Urban real estate is a whole new world, which they are going to have to learn.

The basic 2010 Census figures for Washington state were released on February 23, and they show a sizable increase in the city of Pullman™s population.   The official 2010 population for Pullman was 29,799, which reflects a 20.8 percent growth rate in the number of community residents since 2000. This is our city™s largest percentage increase in population over the course of a decade since the 1960s.  

Pullman is now the 40th largest city in Washington, and the 38th fastest growing city in the state (for those municipalities with over 10,000 people). It is also noteworthy that the population of Pullman is becoming more diverse; the percentage of residents classified as œwhite decreased from 83 percent of the population in 2000 to 79 percent last year. The 2010 Census information currently available for Pullman is displayed in the table on page 2; 2000 figures are also provided in this table for comparison purposes.

According to the Census data, the 2010 population of Whitman County was 44,776. That marks a 9.9 percent increase over the county™s 2000 figure of 40,740.

Census data have thus far been released only for 21 states.   At this time, for example, the Census Bureau has not issued any information for the state of Idaho or its municipalities.

In case you missed it, I’m attaching a recent article about Pullman’s terrific high-tech industry from our local newspaper, The Daily News.     Kudos to Pullman for fostering that entrepreneurial spirit!

TOWN CRIER IV: The state of industry on the Palouse

Dan David

Posted on: Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Pullman has become a citadel of high-tech industry. What, you ask? Take a look:

Amplicon

Amplicon Express, employee/family owned, founded by Robert (Bert) Bogden in 1996. In 1998, it moved from France to Pullman. In 2010, they collaborated with Washington State University and Italian researchers on the apple genome that resulted in a genetics paper in the journal Nature. More than 60 percent international, its clients are academia/government (like the USDA), and biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Amplicon makes DNA libraries, building chromosome maps for anything from bacteria to blue whales that can improve everything from a wine’s bouquet to human oncology.

Bioniche

Since 2004, Bioniche has made all of its embryo transfer products in Pullman where nine are employed. Alyssa Hood directs operations. Embryo manipulation allows superior female animals seven to 12 offspring a year using surrogate mothers. It’s a boon to beef and dairy herds. If you’ve a winning filly of the lineage of Secretariat, think of the possibilities.

Decagon

Founded in 1983 by Dr. Gaylon Campbell, Decagon began by making plant and soil moisture measuring devices. Now, their water activity meters are used by 80 of the top 100 food companies. They employ more than 85 in Pullman in a family atmosphere and healthy lifestyle environment. In 2007, Decagon provided sensory instruments for NASA’s Phoenix Scout Lander mission.

Digilent

There was a time American electrical engineering students got little hands-on experience. In 2000, Clint Cole and Gene Apperson, two WSU engineers, started building digital circuit boards that could be physically manipulated and electronically programmed. Digilent employs about 25 in Pullman. Since their market is the cash strapped student, production is in Taiwan, China and Romania, keeping circuit boards the price of textbooks.

Ecowell

In May 2009, Don Tilton, Caryn Parker and three WSU students invented computer-operated vending machines that mix nutritional drinks when, where and how consumers want them, providing healthy alternatives to pop and reducing waste. Ecowell employs nine, all in Pullman. It has machines in office buildings, schools, universities and even in places like Reno.

Metriguard

Metriguard, cofounded by James Logan and Roy Pellerin in ’72, was the first private spin-off from WSU’s College of Engineering – now employing 25 in Pullman. They produce the world’s best equipment for evaluating wood bending, compression, shear and tensile strengths. These instruments are predominantly used for engineered wood products, mainly dimensional lumber and veneers. Seventy-five percent of Metiguard’s business is international.

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories

In 1982, Edmund O. Schweitzer III discovered how to find power faults and interruptions with digital protective relays. These were a far cry from the electromechanical relays of old – these relays revolutionized the industry. By 1985, SEL had 11 employees and began building manufacturing space. It now has more than 2,000 employees, 80 offices in 16 countries and services at least 142 countries.

Relay Application Innovation

While SEL revolutionized the electrical circuit industry, it was Lawrence C. Gross Jr. who built a company around the application of digital protective relays. Each kind of electrical power system needs a different protective relay arrangement and design so it can be installed, integrated and efficiently maintained. Incorporated in 2000, RAI employs nine in Pullman with representatives in other locations. RAI has been a godsend to the wind-power industry, and has similar designs for solar, hydro, geothermal and nuclear power.

Veterinary Medicine
Research Development

VMRD was founded in 1981 by Dr. D. Scott Adams. His concept of developing and producing easy-to-use diagnostic reagents and test kits for veterinarians, government agencies and laboratories has been a boon to the animal health world. In a family focused, principled atmosphere, VMRD adds a uniquely personal touch to the technical service and delivery of their products. Rapidly growing they employ more than 50 in Pullman and distribute to 50-plus countries.

Epilogue

These entrepreneurs have improved the regional wealth, economic stability, employment, tax base and have inspired others. Moscow is an equal citadel and another story.

Dan David and his wife, Pam, have raised two sons in Pullman where they thank God for the Palouse. He practices optometry and the frivolities of archery, hunting and fishing, photography and writing.

Happy New Year!   Typically in real estate, we see a dip in activity following the holidays.   However, we’ve found this January that listings and buying activity remain swift.   Particularly with local businesses.   Congratulations to the new owners of Camas Winery in Moscow, ID, Jeremy and Heidi Ritter!   The Ritters purchased Camas Winery, located in downtown Moscow last week, from longtime founders and owners, Stu and  Sue Scott.   The Ritters plan on continuing to craft their wines downtown, but expand upon the wine bar hours of operation.  

National News:  

Multi-family housing opportunities continue to be of great interest, as there is a nationwide shortage of rentals predicted, due to many prior homeowners, now positioned for the rental market.    According to an article posted with the Urban Land Institute, the National Association of Builders is predicting a 16% increase in multi-family housing starts this year, and a 50% jump in 2012.   But the 336,000 units predicted to be built within the next 2 years, still won’t be enough to  meet demand.

Palouse Commercial Re-Cap:

Analyzing our transactions last year, we were surprised to see that the bulk of transactions consisted of land transactions.   65% of our sales resulted from land transactions.   13% from residential buyer representation transactions; 12% from business-only sales transactions; 9% from commercial building transactions; and the remainder of the transactions being lease-related.   Majority of leasing occurred downtown with new businesses coming in such as:   Maven (women’s boutique clothing), Li’s Garden Restaurant taking over the old Chinese Village space and The Storm Cellar expanding into the old Goodwill space.  

New year…New faces.

This year, we are extremely fortunate to add additional agents in Pullman, WA and the Lewiston/Clarkston market.   Jan Koal represents our Pullman office, along with Colleen MacDonald, and Mr. Koal holds the highly-regarded  CCIM accreditation.   He is our research guru, and helps arm us with loads of statistics to help us  provide our clients with current data.   In our Lewiston office, Dan Lantz has joined us and brings years of real estate experience.   He will represent us well there.   Palouse Commercial Real Estate now represents the entire quad-city region.   This provides added advantage and exposure for our clients.

We look forward to working with you this year!

Thanks and best wishes-

SLB  

During the past 4 months, we’ve had many requests for multi-family housing opportunities and rental income producers.   Now…we have an answer!   A package of 6 large duplexes.   Perfect for families and students in our college town.   They have a total of 24 bedrooms and 19 baths.   Total gross income of $187,200 and a cap rate of 7.9%   Built in 2004, they have been well maintained and are in good shape.   List price:   $1,690,000.   Call our office if this sparks interest:   208.882.3800 or email me at sbennett@palousecommercial.com!