Real Estate has long been labeled as a finite commodity. After all, as we have heard so many times before, there is only so much land available. As true as it may seem, us humans seem to be doing everything in our power to push these boundaries and prove that this may not be the case!

The rapid pace at which technology is being developed and introduced to the market can be thanked for this. As these advances continue, more and more real estate opportunities raise their heads.

Who would have thought that church steeples would be the big real estate earner in the late 90’s! People would have laughed you out of the room if you had made such a claim. However, one invention suddenly made the steeple a viable business opportunity. As many will remember, telecommunications companies such as Sprint PCS and Pacific Bell Mobile Service raced to build antenna networks to transmit their new digital cellular phone service and church steeples seemed to be the ideal spot to transmit from.

More than ten years after the church steeple phenomenon a new technological advance has spurred a fresh demand for real estate. It now seems that flat roofs are set to take off as we move from worshipping the skies, to worshipping the sun. Solar power is becoming more and more viable as an alternative source of energy and where best to harness this power than a flat roof, possibly even on your private residence.

The trend first began with deals between energy companies and various large manufacturing and warehouse operations to install solar panels on their premises in return for a fee.

The energy companies have now started to tap the residential sector. The inherent logic of this development is obvious; once they’ve got local authority approval energy companies can extend their ’solar parks’ quickly and with relatively little hassle by fixing normal residents up with solar power. Homeowners are interested because they get a fee for renting out their roofs to professionally managed solar panel operators.

Duke Energy in North Carolina is one such company following this route. It recently became the latest company to announce it would start renting the roofs of ordinary houses for solar power generation. The energy giant will rent 425 roofs across the state as early as next year.  You could argue that Duke, which aside from the Carolinas is also present in parts of the Midwest, found a vital niche because not everybody can afford decent solar panels and this offers people the chance to participate in the solar revolution.

Indeed, throughout the United States, homeowners are being compensated by their energy utility to have solar panels installed. This is arising from the power companies’ urgent need for roof space. They are in a race against the clock to replace ever increasing portions of the regular energy supply by power sourced from renewables.

Independent companies are also getting in on the act of offering people the option of renting out their roofs. Outside renewable energy providers will pay for, install, own and operate the solar systems. The homeowners simply agree to pay a rental fee for the solar electricity generated – based on their usage at the previous year’s rate. Cost reductions of around 20% are feasible.

A good example of this in operation is the Delaware renewable energy company Citizenre which offers customers living in states that have a net metering law the option of renting panels for one, five or twenty-five years. These customers pay a per-kilowatt flat fee instead of the utility bill. Citizenre then sell the excess power generated back to the local utility.

Looking towards the future, it is worth considering how advances in technology can result in the further inception or birth of fresh real estate. Social networking, instant messaging, VoIP, and countless other advancements are leading us down the path to distance communication whereby there will feasibly be no benefit from having company staff in situ. It is not a wild leap to suggest that in the not too distant future, these developments will have led to colleagues connecting with each other from the sanctity of their own homes.

Where does this leave the vacant office blocks? Real Estate is a finite commodity – we beg to differ!

Equity Interface is an online real estate investment service designed to connect developers and accredited investors. By offering unparalleled research tools and information, Equity Interface empowers members to discover mutually beneficial real estate opportunities. For more information, please visit www.equityinterface.com

Analysts are predicting positive figures for property sales and house starts next year in the US but they are also quick to warn that the recovery will be up and down.

The vast majority agree that the real estate market has reached bottom and indeed one can see prices increasing in a lot of states. However, there is still considerable confusion with indices reporting varying figures and experts disagreeing over whether or not a glut of foreclosures will come onto the market, and thus send prices into freefall.

Fitch Ratings increased its projections for housing starts and home sales for the first time in more than three years. At the same time, they were cautious in warning that recovery will be turbulent.
 
‘During the first 12 to 15 months off the bottom, the housing recovery may appear jaw-toothed as substantial foreclosures now in the pipeline surface as distressed sales,’ said managing director and analyst Bob Curran.

The foreclosure topic has caused much debate.

Latest figures from ForeclosureRadar show California foreclosure filings in September flattened from the previous month, while still well above the levels from a year earlier.

Conversely, other states saw a sharp increase, with Florida up 29.6%, Texas up 24.3% and Michigan up 18.22%.

According to Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) the delinquency pipeline threatens to put as many as 2.7 million distressed sales on the market, ‘A housing market that is just beginning to climb from the ashes would be unable to handle an influx of nearly three million additional homes for sale all at once,’ they said.

Radar Logic’s president Michael Feder is less worried. ‘The threat of pending foreclosures to the housing market is, in our view, overstated and we believe there is strong evidence that housing supply and demand are returning to more normal levels,’ Feder explained.

Their latest residential property index shows that home prices and home sales in 25 metropolitan statistical areas increased 1% and 1.9%, respectively, from July to August.
 
The National Association of Realtors is reporting that existing home sales increased nearly 10% from August to September, and sales activity is at peak level since July 2007.

Equity Interface is an online real estate investment service designed to connect developers and accredited investors. By offering unparalleled research tools and information, Equity Interface empowers members to discover mutually beneficial real estate opportunities. For more information, please visit www.equityinterface.com

For the first time in more than a year, economy growth was in positive figures, said the Commerce Department on Thursday. The figures unofficially ended the worst US recession in 70 years.

GDP expanded at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the three months ending in September, which is a significant jump from its depleted base. The economy had contracted at annual rates of 0.7 percent and 6.4 percent in the second and first quarters of this year, respectively.

Consumer spending, which accounts for over two-thirds of US economic activity, surged at a 3.4% rate in the third quarter, the fastest pace since the first quarter of 2007. Residential investment, which was the main force behind the downturn, jumped at a 23.4% annual rate in the third quarter, contributing to GDP for the first time since 2005, after declining 23.3% in the April-June period.

This surge in consumer spending and residential investment was likely to have been driven by government stimulus programmes.

The economic recovery in the third quarter was supported by a sharp moderation in the pace of inventory liquidation by business. Inventories fell $130.8 billion, slowing from a record $160.2 billion plunge in the second quarter

Analysts are hoping that the slowdown in the inventory decline by businesses will continue to support the economy in the fourth quarter.

Unemployment remains a major area of concern however with job seekers not likely to feel the benefits for months to come.

Stagnant consumer demand and withering consumer confidence have left companies wary of hiring more employees or taking any expensive risks at all. The jobless rate reached 9.8 percent in September, its highest rate in 26 years.

Such forces may pressure government to look for targeted interventions into the labor market, in addition to last winter’s broader $787 billion stimulus package which continues to work its way through the economy. Proposals on the table include another extension in unemployment benefits and various job creation programs.

The advent of social networking has seen many businesses broaden their lines of communication with clients and potential customers. However, for tightly regulated industries, including ours, the challenge is utilizing these services in a legitimate manner. With the need for diligent documentation of all contact with clients, it has up until now proved very hard to get the best out of these platforms.

The head of the largest U.S. independent securities regulator said on Tuesday (October 27th) that social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn raise “serious new challenges” for financial regulators.

Wall Street bankers and analysts increasingly wish to use such social networking tools to connect and interact with customers, Richard Ketchum, the chief executive of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) said.

But unfortunately, the current design of these sites, married to the current legislation, makes it rather difficult. It proves hard for firms to keep the kind of archives of their employees’ business communications required by regulators, Ketchum told industry group Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s (SIFMA) annual meeting.

“We continue to witness the advent of technologies that will challenge your ability to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements,” Ketchum told the bankers and dealers. “Social networking is one such innovation.”

Most firms prohibit their employees from using sites like Facebook for business, partly because of the difficulties they pose for firms’ ability to meet supervision and record-keeping requirements, Ketchum said.
“Nevertheless, interest in these sites is inevitable and will not go unabated,” he said.

FINRA has set up a task force comprised of industry representatives “to explore how regulation can embrace technology advancements in ways that can improve the flow of information between firms and their customers without compromising investor protection,” he said.

October 21st, 2009: Hi Point

• Mark Magna and Alex Berger presented an overview of their High Point multi-family development project in LA.

Click here to see a recording of the seminar.