ULI Fall Meeting Takeaways
November 4, 2019 2:30 pmThursday, September 19, 2019
Washington, DC
Emerging Trends
- Wage growth is one of the top major factor you need to look at by geography to identify
market opportunities at this stage of the market cycle. - Occupations driving wage growth are an additional factor you need look at when
targeting markets during this stage of the market cycle. - Example City – Austin’s pop growth is 3 times higher than the national average.
- Knowledge towns are a market opportunity because of the talent hubs being supported
by corporations and educational institutes, these maybe more resilient in the event of a
downturn in the future. - The broader trends are important but you really have to look more at deals on a case by
case basis than just population sizes of cities when comparing the two at that level. The
tier 1,2,3 cities have become less of a factor. - Hipsturbia – a trend of the younger generation bring their more urban interests into the
suburban community for things like breweries, vegetarian food, coffee shop, walkability,
village squares etc there a real opportunity to create urban environments in the
suburbs.
Fastest growing neighborhood in Washington DC – The Yards and Capital Riverfront.
- Quality of life and urbanization are the primary reasons why it has grown and expecting
continued growth. - It’s mainly millennials, remote workers and government contractors. These
communities are highly amentized. Lots of rooftop garden terraces, pools and gyms.
Several with conference rooms and one with a basketball court shared among several
buildings. - Instagram local influencer campaign was successful in getting more tenant leases
Residential Neighborhood Development Council Meeting
- Washington’s DC Market – National factors are impacting the market similarly to the rest
of the country - Government shutdowns impact DC local real estate economy substantially.
- Buyers have become more decerning. They are waiting on the right property.
- Lower price points increasing at a higher rate
- Luxury market starting to soften in DC $1M+
- Correlation between pop growth and home prices are not very correlated
- In DC, Boomers are living in their homes longer.
- 30% additional cost due to DC’s regulatory environment
- I-Buyer Platform – Lenner taking the lead on buying homes online
- Zillow Offers – Amazon is an ethos at Zillow. Ondemand services needed. 38% think
about new construction when they consider a buying a home but only 12% do
afterwards. - Lennar – trade in trade up program, rolled out open door across 20 markets
- Zestimate turning into instant offer
- Where are the risks?
- Low offers is an issue for builder referrals
- Realtors relationships is a struggle
- Zillow would like to purchase 5,000 units per month.
- Brokers are having to lower their commissions to compete with the Zillow Offers and
OpenDoor.