Archive for May, 2009
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Demographics on May 18th, 2009

- Image by Robert of Fairfax via Flickr
According to the NAHB and the Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA), Georgia’s senior population will increase by 40 percent between 2010 and 2020.
Urban Institute researchers are calling the influx of retiring baby boomers a “tsunami of senior growth in the next decade,” and pinpoints 20 U.S. cities where most of these individuals will retire – which identifies those markets where senior housing and care also will see the most growth.
These are the metro areas that will experience the most growth due to retiring baby boomers:
1. Raleigh-Cary, NC (31.6%)
2. Austin-Round Rock, TX (30.1%)
3. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA (29.8%)
4. Boise City-Nampa, ID (28.7%)
5. Las Vegas-Paradise, NV (27.8%)
6. Orlando-Kissimmee, FL (27.2%)
7. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX (23.7%)
8. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX (22.7%)
9. Colorado Springs, CO (22.6%)
10. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX (21.5%)
11. Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ (21.0%)
12. Charleston-North Charleston, SC (20.8%)
13. Albuquerque, NM (19.5%)
14. Tucson, AZ (19.2%)
15. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC/VA (19.1%)
16. Salt Lake City, UT (19.0%)
17. Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC/SC (18.2%)
18. Denver-Aurora, CO (18.1%)
19. Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN (18.1%)
20. Ogden-Clearfield, UT (18.0%)
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Demographics on May 6th, 2009

Remember the good old days, when a stunning ad campaign alone turned heads and got results? Today’s consumer audience is more challenging than ever. They don’t have time for lengthy sales pitches, don’t want to be told what to do, have the ways and means to research on their own before even coming close to any decision making, and want to know precisely what’s in it for them. We’re not just talking about Generation Y, either. It’s the information undertow pulling us all into ADD-land, including the Baby Boomers once believed to be technologically challenged.
So how do we get through to an impatient consumer who seemingly has all the answers at their fingertips when it comes to marketing? Gone are the days of a clever, catchy headline and appealing creative doing all the persuading. Today’s consumer wants to be rewarded for their loyalty, because the Internet has made worldwide competition available with the click of a mouse.
Before even considering traditional versus Web 2.0 era marketing mediums, let’s first address your one chance to capture the ears of your potential buyer. Do you tout your capabilities, past experience, your award-winning process and solution to their needs? They don’t care. It’s a “me” generation. Everyone is completely absorbed in his or her own problems. How do you shake them out of their digital coma? DEFINE THEIR PROBLEM. In your marketing headline, on your website landing page, in your elevator pitch!
For example, which magazine ad headline would grab your attention and make you want to learn more for an active adult community?
“Create an Adventure With Every Day” or “Bored With Retirement? Create an Adventure Every Day at XYZ Community” (or even better, “Are Naps the Highlight of Your Retirement?”)
How about this one:
“Affordable Golf Course Living” or “Concerned About Your Long-Term Finances? See how far your money can go at XYZ Community”
To do this, you can start by naming a unique solution your company provides. How do you differentiate yourself from the competition? Great. Now, what consumer or client problem does this solve? Target your audience specifically and get in front of them addressing their problem and YOUR solution.
Written by Debi Taylor, Idea Associates, Inc
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Real Estate Economics on May 1st, 2009

Lately you may read a lot about small nuggets of turnarounds, a “reaching the bottom” in some sectors, and the stock market spent several days last week above 8,000. Yet, the next big fallout seems to CMBS and the commercial real estate markets. Over and over articles are printed about the pending disasters that are sure to strike commercial real estate, a plunging of values, and how so many owner operators are facing disastrous balloon payments, due dates and aspects of foreclosure on properties that are otherwise performing at or close to proforma.
Upon closer inspection, you may discover that all or most of these articles and predictions of death and pestilence are penned by those players who bought properties in the last three to four years, paid cap rates in the 6% cap range at negative leverage (from an interest rate standpoint) at very high Loan to value positions, or perhaps even levered up with mezzanine and secondary participation pieces.
We are facing a simple repricing of the market and of values. This is being exacerbated not so much as from occupancies, though they are certainly down somewhat, but rather by financing markets; the lending community’s unwillingness to continue to go to 80% and more of loan to value or at a 1.0 debt coverage ratio. So those acquisitions at aggressive purchase prices financed with short term debt that does not fully amortize, (or self liquidate) will be distressed, troubled, or in today’s parlance become “special assets”.
Ever heard of “live by the sword, die by the sword”? The sword today is debt. The wise swordsman chooses his foil wisely; one that is light enough to be whipped smartly and without burden to surgically excise returns from the market to his benefit. The unwise swordsman perhaps just reaches for the largest blade he can lift, one that may in fact be too unwieldy for him to effectively utilize for survival in true combat, and in the confusion and fog of war, sometimes he may succumb to falling upon it himself.
Too many of the investment market participants have been feeding gluttonously on debt and are addicted to it. Wall Street and hedge funds have been enablers of these acquisition hounds and developers, chasing fees and some kind of return, any return. As these practitioners lose these deals to foreclosure, do not weep for them. Free enterprise is efficient. Weep for their children, but not for them.
Article written by Bruce A. Davis, Senior Partner of Bryant Commercial Real Estate Partners, LLC and member of Market Solutions Group
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