From the Road

Here are some thoughts from the road after three weeks of Emerging Trends speeches:

San Francisco: Relatively upbeat after a thorough pummeling, the market sees cash rich vultures start to circle in a flight to quality. Well-leased downtown properties find a floor and the apartment market could come back more quickly than other sectors. The worst is over.

Toronto: Locals sleep easy despite downtown office overbuilding and weak industrial markets brought on by carmaker woes just south of the border. Well-heeled institutions own most of the downtown properties and offer stability while developers back off ample condo construction-units get bought up in move-back in trends. A lackluster economy looks comparatively good next to U.S. woes. Everyone is relieved they didn´t overleverage and stuck to conservative practices with a heavy dollop of government regulation in the banking sector. The big worry is contagion from the U.S., including the weak greenback, which cuts into exports.

Boston: Happy to rank higher in Emerging Trends than anywhere else but Washington D.C. and San Fran, Hub players know they still have to take their medicine and work their way out of a giant hole. A barrier constrained market and brainpower center offers better prospects for quicker recovery than most other places.