Big Tech’s Housing Promises Meet California Red Tape

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Good morning. In 2019, Google, Meta, and Apple vowed billions to fix Silicon Valley’s housing crunch. Six years later, the results reveal how even deep pockets can’t outrun California’s red tape.

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• Market momentum: For the first time since 2020, all five major CRE services firms raised their 2025 outlooks as leasing, sales, and financing activity rebound.

• Funding lift: Developer confidence in multifamily housing ticked up in Q2 2025 after a new law doubled Fannie and Freddie’s annual affordable housing investment to $4B. 

• Right spreads: Corporate bond rallies have squeezed yields, forcing investors to take more risk for minimal reward.

• Inflation steady: US inflation held at 2.7% in July as falling food and energy costs offset rising services prices, bolstering expectations for a September Fed rate cut. 

• Airport upgrade: Atlanta is planning a $1B bond sale to modernize and expand Hartsfield-Jackson, the world’s busiest airport. 

• Profit return: Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance posted a six-month profit but saw Q2 income drop and risks persist. 

• Project pressures: Developers report mixed experiences as lower labor costs offset tariffs for some projects, while others still face steep material price hikes.

• Pricing ban: Greystar will stop using RealPage’s rent-setting tools with competitor data and cooperate with the DOJ’s antitrust probe under a new consent decree.

• Flow state: Adam Neumann’s Flow will build a $525M, 1,900-unit luxury complex on Miami’s Brickell waterfront. 

• Market pinch: Even fixed-rate, nonprofit-owned rent-stabilized buildings are facing rising foreclosures and delinquencies as expenses climb and rent growth stays constrained.

• Tower refi: Global Holdings secured a $249M Freddie Mac–backed loan to refinance its upgraded 50-story Anagram NoMad rental tower in Manhattan.

• Steady storage: Lenders keep funding self-storage despite tighter underwriting and a focus on acquisitions over new builds.

• Value hunt: Miami industrial vacancies rose to 6% in Q2, but demand and rents still climbed as tenants favored cheaper Class B and C spaces.

• Mega loan: DC Blox secured $1.15B in green financing to build a 120MW Atlanta-area data center campus. 

• Market shift: CBRE projects 2025 industrial net absorption at its lowest since 2010 as tenants vacate older space for newer facilities.

• Community commerce: Struggling US malls are reviving foot traffic by replacing vacant anchors like Sears and Macy’s with churches, bookstores, entertainment, and other niche tenants.

• Sales slide: Single-tenant net lease sales fell to $9.61B in Q2, one of the weakest quarters in a decade.

• Coupon comeback: Bed Bath & Beyond is back as “Bed Bath & Beyond Home,” starting in Tennessee and luring shoppers with old 20%-off coupons.

• Dining decline: Economic pressures and waning consumer confidence drove a billion fewer US restaurant visits in Q1, hitting fast-food chains hardest. 

• Leasing divide: NYC’s prime retail availability hit its lowest since 2017, but landlords are shifting investment to Williamsburg as some Manhattan corridors struggle with vacancies and safety concerns.

• Office dynamics: CBRE’s 2025 survey finds attendance rising, policy enforcement growing, and companies planning space expansions despite hybrid work challenges.

• Move money: US cities are increasingly offering cash and perks—from $5,000 checks to golf memberships—to attract remote workers.

• HQ move: FlatironDragados, North America’s second-largest civil contractor, will relocate its headquarters to a 25K SF space at Atlanta’s Perimeter Summit.  

• Value threat: A CCA study warns DTLA could lose $69.5B in office property value over the next decade without action, urging incentives for office-to-housing conversions.

• Summer slump: Las Vegas visits fell in June amid economic uncertainty and fewer international travelers. 

• Outdoor luxury: Investors are pouring money into luxury RV parks, a fast-growing $9B outdoor hospitality niche expected to reach $30B within five years.

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