Real Estate Daily News Buzz is designed to give news snippets to readers that our (yet to be award winning) editors thought you could use to start your day. They come from various business perspectives, real estate, government, the Fed, local news, and the stock markets to save you time. Here you will find the headlines and what the news buzz of the day will be.
Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 68.35 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 19,191.93. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 7.73 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 2,191.08. The Nasdaq composite tumbled 72.57 points, or 1.4 per cent, to 5,251.11.
Benchmark U.S. crude picked up $1.62, or 3.3 per cent, to close at $51.06 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the standard for pricing international oils, added $2.10, or 4.1 per cent, to $53.94 a barrel in London. In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline rose 6 cent to $1.55 a gallon. Heating oil added 7 cents to $1.65. Natural gas gained 15 cents to $3.51 per 1,000 cubic feet.
ELTON JOHN COMING TO TUCSON - Elton John and his band return to Tucson for one performance at the Tucson Arena on Tuesday, March 21, 2017 at 8 p.m. Tickets go on sale to the public next Monday at 10 a.m., but those eligible for the presale can buy tickets today. The performance is part of an 11-city concert tour that will feature iconic hits and classic album tracks from throughout his five-decade career, as well as selected tracks from his latest release, Wonderful Crazy Night. Sir Elton John is one of the top-selling solo artists of all time, with 38 gold records, 31 platinum albums, 29 consecutive Top 40 hits, and he has sold more than 250 million records worldwide. Ticketmaster: https://bit.ly/2gVBOzA
SANTA TO CALL TUCSON CHILDREN EARLY NEXT MONTH - Santa and his elves would like to add some sparkle to a child’s holiday season through the Santa's Calling program, courtesy of Tucson Parks and Recreation. The special child(ren) in your life, between ages of 4 and 8, will have an opportunity to speak with Santa and listen to his elves hard at work. All calls will be made on Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 6-7. If the North Pole receives too many requests for two nights, Thursday, Dec. 8, also will be used. In order to receive a call, you'll need to fill out a form (link below) and mail the request by this Friday or email forms to TPRD-SantaRosa@tucsonaz.gov by Sunday, Dec. 4. Request form: https://bit.ly/2fCsSeM
HUNDREDS OF WILDLAND FIREFIGHTERS GATHER IN TUCSON FOR CONFERENCE - More than 300 firefighters from 21 states and five continents are at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson to debate fire suppression ideas and to learn more about managing fire for social, economic, and ecological benefits. The conference, which began Monday and runs through Friday, is hosted by the Association for Fire Ecology and the Southwest Fire Science Consortium. Held every two years, the conference discusses fire in a warming climate, using fire as a tool in forest management, and how to best manage fires with shrinking budgets. There also will be tours of the Tree Ring Research Lab at the University of Arizona and a hike into the Santa Catalina Mountains, the scene of the Bullock and Aspen large wildland fires.
SNOW ON MT. LEMMON - With winter in high gear now, Tucsonans are starting to head to Mt. Lemmon to enjoy the two to four inches of snow that fell over the area Sunday night. Tucson 12 went up the mountain during a previous snowstorm to capture some of the sights and sounds of people at play. Enjoy the video linked below. Watch the video:
WORK PROGRAM FOR HOMELESS TO BEGIN NEXT WEEK - The Tucson Homeless Work Program begins next Tuesday, Dec. 6. It will allow homeless people to join a day-labor crew to clean streets and medians in five-hour shifts for $10 an hour in cash. Those who take part in the one-year pilot program will get two meals, a shower, and other services provided by various agencies. Tucson City Council Member Richard Fimbres organized the effort, which other Council members support. The first year of the program, administered by Old Pueblo Community Services, will be funded with $25,000 from fees the City of Tucson already collects from waste haulers for projects that clean up city streets. Pima County will match the $25,000. After the pilot program is over, Fimbres hopes funding will come from business contributions and donations from the public to the Tucson Change Movement, a new effort that will allow people to use change or swipe a debit or credit card to donate at special replica parking meters.
Albertsons in Exclusive Talks to Buy Price Chopper—Sources “U.S. supermarket chain Albertsons Companies Inc is in advanced talks to acquire closely held grocery store operator Price Chopper for around $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. A deal would underscore the wave of consolidation sweeping the U.S. grocery industry, as regional chains struggle to compete against online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc., big box stores such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and discount chains such as ALDI Inc. These challenges put pressure on the Golub family, which has owned Price Chopper for more than eight decades, to explore a sale.” (Reuters)
Blame wages and turtle doves: ’12 Days’ now costs $34,363 -- Even “The Twelve Days of Christmas” are feeling the slow economic recovery. The price of nine of the other 12 gifts listed in the carol stayed the same price or became cheaper, including a partridge in a pear tree, according to the 33rd annual PNC Wealth Management Christmas Price Index released Thursday. As a result, the overall cost of the gifts listed in the song increased 0.7 per cent from last year to $34,363. PNC Financial Services Group releases the price index each year as a whimsical way of tracking inflation.
Construction Spending Rises 0.5% in October “Outlays for U.S. construction projects rose 0.5% in October, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch forecast a 0.7% gain. Spending in October was 3.4% higher than in October a year ago, and spending in the first 10 months of the year was 4.5% higher than the same period last year. Private residential construction spending rose 1.6% during the month, while private nonresidential construction was 2.1% lower.” (MarketWatch)
Requests for US jobless aid rose last week— More Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. But claims are still at low levels that point to greater job security. The Labor Department said Thursday that applications for jobless aid rose by 17,000 to a seasonally adjusted 268,000. The less-volatile four-week average ticked up 500 to 251,500. The overall number of people collecting unemployment checks was 2.08 million, down more than 5 per cent from a year earlier. Weekly claims are at historically low levels that suggest a stable environment for jobseekers. (WASHINGTON AP)
The Fed Confirmed Some of the Most Troubling Trends in Manhattan Real Estate “The Federal Reserve on Wednesday supported recent data showing some worrying trends in parts of Manhattan's real-estate market. The Beige Book compiled anecdotes from contacts of the 12 regional banks, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It is not a hard data release. There are too many luxury apartments in the city, with more developments still rising from the ground. A report from Douglas Elliman Real Estate released last month showed that new development inventory surged in the third quarter after four straight periods of declines.” (Business Insider)
We Need a Miracle on 34th Street “Forty four percent of consumers surveyed across the country said they had taken to the internet for their early Christmas purchases, while 40 percent shopped in stores, according to the National Retail Federation. Yet while brick-and-mortar retailers have come to play more of what Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst with the NPD Group, calls a ‘supporting role’ in the landscape of peak holiday season, a longing appears to persist for social dimensions of consuming and for something more fulfilling than a series of solitary scroll-and-click transactions on a hand-held device.” (The New York Times)
Chicago Worst of U.S.’s 100 Largest Real Estate Markets in 2017 “Chicago will have the coldest real estate market among the nation's 100 largest metro areas next year, according to a forecast released yesterday. The double-barreled forecast of slim increases in both prices and the number of homes sold landed Chicago in last place in the ranking published by Realtor.com, the website of the National Association of Realtors. The forecast sees Chicago-area home prices rising by 1.95 percent in 2017 and the number of home sales growing by 2.27 percent. Neither figure is the lowest in its category, "but because the forecast for both was weak.” (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Millennial Shoppers Are Heading to J.C. Penney “From magic mirrors to selfie walls, retailers' haphazard attempts to court millennial shoppers have not been short on gimmicks. Perhaps that's what makes J.C. Penney's approach refreshingly simple. Instead of throwing the latest trends and technologies in the face of these shoppers, Penney's has honed in on one specific subset of the diverse generation: millennial moms. Numbering more than 14 million in the U.S., according to Pew Research, this group of women accounts for 45 percent of Penney's revenue.” (CNBC)
Nike Swooshing Into New 60K-Plus SF Mega-Store on Fifth Avenue “Nike has sealed a 15-year deal for a store that exceeds 60,000 square feet and spans more than five stories at 650 Fifth Avenue near West 52nd Street, Commercial Observer has learned. The asking rent for the ground floor was $4,000 per square foot. It’s not clear if Nike is abandoning its Niketown space at Trump Tower at 6 East 57th Street at Fifth Avenue, but the company has been looking for space for a while.” (Commercial Observer)
KeyBank Lends a Helping Hand in Washington “AVS Communities, a real estate development company active in the greater Seattle and Puget Sound region, recently received $95.2 million in tax-exempt bond financing from KeyBank’s Community Development Lending & Investing (CDLI) group to create more affordable housing in the area. The California-based developer will use the financial help for the Villas at Auburn and the Reserve at Auburn, two multifamily projects that will bring on the market a combined 592 units of affordable housing for residents making 60 percent or less of the area median income.” (Commercial Property Executive)
Pop-Up Serving as Band-Aids for Retail Landlords “Uncertainty continues to plague the city’s retail market. Asking rents have dipped across large parts of Manhattan, according to a recent retail report from the Real Estate Board of New York. Availability rates increased year-over-year in almost every retail submarket of the borough last quarter, according to an analysis by Cushman & Wakefield. Faced with a market in which tenants aren’t signing up for pricey long-term leases, landlords have had to adjust, and are more open to short-term leases.” (The Real Deal)
US consumers should feel muted impact from rising oil price — OPEC’s decision to cut production gave an immediate boost to oil prices, but the impact on consumers and the U.S. economy is likely to be more modest and gradual. The cartel agreed Wednesday to cut output by 1.2 million barrels a day, reversing a strategy that produced lower oil prices and pain for U.S. drillers but saved money for consumers. Even if OPEC members carry through on their promises, global oil production would only fall by about 1 per cent. (DALLAS AP)