News that public state pension funds are $1 trillion short in funding expected retiree benefits should be rattling everyone and come as no surprise. As they increased real estate allocation targets to 10% or more of their total asset portfolios, many state funds invested with wild abandon in real estate...

At a real estate pension conference I spoke at last week (IREI´s VIP 2010), the mood was guardedly positive-attendees expect more write downs, but sense the worst is over, and plan to stick with the asset class.  What seemed interesting was the apparent disconnect between managers and plan sponsors...

Congratulations to the Saints.

Sounds like a lot of money--$8 billion for high speed rail lines. That's how much the Obama Administration is targeting for upgrading the nation's backward passenger rail service. The problem is estimates range up to $80 billion just to complete one of these lines--from San Diego to Sacramento....

My recent "Government Retrenchment" post produced record feedback on and off line, both positive and negative and very representative of the highly partisan and charged political environment. Folks against government stimulus say enable the private sector to create jobs by cutting taxes and spending....

So what does the populist anger registered in Massachusetts mean for the real estate markets? Nothing good.

During a speech I gave late last week In Syracuse, I asked the audience of about 200 land surveyors whether they thought the country was moving in the right or wrong direction. Only one 30-something woman meekly raised her hand half way up in the air to support a positive view, everyone else emphatically...

The recession is over-that´s what we´ve been told. Job losses continue-albeit at a slowing rate. The car industry got a short term boost late last summer with cash for clunkers, but it´s been tougher going in showrooms since then. The housing sector appears to have bottomed, but house sales are...

To welcome in the New Year Dubai opens the world´s tallest building-they don´t say exactly how high it is only that is at least 2,640 feet, far taller than Taipei 101 tower, which had been numero uno. For comparison sake Sears Tower (oh I mean Willis Tower) in Chicago is a relative small fry at...

The end of the decade approaches and the next couple of weeks will be filled with stories about what a lost ten years it´s been-from Enron and 9/11 to Iraq and the credit meltdown. In real estate, we didn´t create much-except for a lot of overpriced condos and half baked Las Vegas hotels, but...