San Jose Update

The Redevelopment Agency has issued its monthly report and while activity at downtown San Jose condos seems to be improving, sales continue to be extremely slow:

360 Residences – 0/213 Units Closed Escrow (but they are getting a Subway on the ground floor!)
Axis – 86/329U Closed Escrow
City Heights – 95/124 Units Closed Escrow
Tower 88 – 57/197 [...]

Dimon: California Larger Risk Than Greece

Jamie Dimon, the chief of JP Morgan Chase has indicated that California poses a larger risk than Greece.
Mr Dimon told investors at the Wall Street bank’s annual meeting that “there could be contagion” if a state the size of California, the biggest of the United States, had problems making debt repayments.
Dimon isn’t the first to [...]

Moodys’ Commercial Property Price Index Increases 4.1% In December

Moody’s CPPI registered another gain for December. The index rose by 4.1% in December, following a 1% increase in November, marking the second consecutive month of increases.
Despite transaction volumes up dramatically over previous lows, and prices beginning to rise, Moody’s remains cautious on the future, citing in its report that “it would be naïve and [...]

AvalonBay Resuming Apartment Construction

After nearly a year of halting new construction, AvalonBay has resumed apartment construction. The company has plans to construct some $400M of new apartment product as the company and others begin to wager that jobs will return and apartment vacancy rates will plummet.
AvalonBay, based in Alexandria, Virginia, is putting shovels in the ground when 8 [...]

2010 Silicon Valley Index Released

Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network has released its comprehensive Silicon Valley Index for 2010. The 76-page report covers everything Silicon Valley, from governance, to economy and society.
The full report can be downloaded from here. We’ll also link to it from our link bar.
[via Joint Venture]

Green Street Advisors: CRE Prices Up 10%

According to the Green Street Advisors Commercial Property Price Index (original name), prices are up 1% in January, and now up 10% off the bottom reached in May of 2009. The GSA’s index is based on prices for transactions which have not yet closed yet, as opposed to Moody’s which reflects closed transactions.
This is also [...]

Align Technology Inks 129K SF Lease

Align Technology (ALGN: 19.16 -0.21%) has signed a 7-year lease with Equity Office for two buildings on Orchard Parkway. The 129,000 square foot lease is for 86-months, and consists of two (2) 64,500 SF buildings located at 2560 Orchard Parkway and 2570 Orchard Parkway.
The terms of the lease are:

86 Months
First 2 Months Free
$1.00 NNN start [...]

S&P: Worst Yet To Come For Commercial Real Estate Loans

Despite all the good news that you’ve been hearing about commercial real estate, we haven’t been entirely convinced. We’ve indicated that uncertainty and continued weakness in rents and occupancy are powerful enough forces to keep the commercial real estate sector in check for some time. Now S&P is out with a research paper entitled, “Industry Outlook: [...]

Prudential U.S. Quarterly Report

rudential has put out it’s latest report outlining it’s take on the commercial real estate market. Some bullet points from the report:
The recent appearance of positive indicators – economic and otherwise – has turned market sentiment in the commercial real estate sector decidedly more favorable.
Widespread distress has yet to materialize, although it should be [...]

California Unemployment Rate Hovers at 12.4%

Unemployment in California is sitting pretty steady, and now sits at 12.4%. December of 2008, the unemployment rate was a 8.7%. The job market continued to be extremely weak, with 80% of the states reporting an increase in unemployment.

The biggest sectors to lose jobs over the past twelve months are:

Construction, down 16.1%
Manufacturing, down 7.7%

The unemployment [...]