'Boots on the Ground' Report: Should we look into 2026 with Optimism?

Multifamily: Just starting to see larger trades occur, which is a good sign that the entire market is thawing out. Still, the huge supply of small multifamily (2-4 units) available on the local market is putting immense downward pressure on the sales values and time on market.

‍Storage: While cap rates are slowly ticking up, and new deliveries are adding to the already saturated market, there is still immense buyer demand for conventional storage facilities. Today's storage buyer is typically all-cash and less sensitive to the debt markets.

‍Retail: It is a Herculean effort to get a retail-focused deal across the finish line today; we see many, if not most, retail deals die before closing in today's market. Retail leasing is a slightly better story, but still an all-hands effort to fill a space.

‍Industrial: Another story of the large vacancies 'thawing out' - starting to see movement on build-to-suits and backfills into big spaces. Small-bay industrial has slowed somewhat due to the winter/holiday season, but we expect demand to continue well into '26.\

‍Office: Unfortunately the office market is still deadlocked. If a trade does happen, it typically is a "stars-aligned" deal with an asset that has just what a user needs. Otherwise, we are focused on owner-users, non-profits, and government entities to help keep spaces full.

‍Land: We are starting to see more land trades occur - developers still see end-user demand, and need to keep pipelines full. A land deal you start today may take 5 years to close - and that's simply what it takes these days.

The term going around was "Survive 'til '25" - investors are hoping to change that to "Thrive in '26". It feels like everyone is hesitant to let out their breath, and that one shock to the system could make everything go (I'm knocking on wood as I write this.)

There are a million different influences on price action both to the positive and negative - the world is simply becoming a much more complicated one. In our little pocket, we're excited and "cautiously optimistic".