Dear Consultant: Happy Anniversary!

by Lesley Deutch

We are celebrating our first anniversary at Dear Consultant! We would like to share (with assistance from the JBREC proprietary AI tool) the key themes of the more than 300 questions we received.

• Market outlook and forecasting: many readers asked about our forecasts—for mortgage rates, real estate prices and sales, housing and development trends, and housing demand. Keep reading in 2025 to gain more insight!?
• Investment strategy included questions regarding which markets to invest in, portfolio strategy, and risk assessment.
• Demographics and migration was a favorite topic, as readers sought migration data, generational preferences, immigration impacts, and overall birth-rate trends. ?
• Build-to-rent (BTR) continues to be an emerging asset class, and questions addressed development trends, rental demographics, investment opportunities, and management strategies. We address many of these in our newsletters.
• Development and construction included building materials investments, small vs. large builders, and innovation in housing?and development regulations.
• Affordable housing and market access included constraints of affordable housing, rent control, first-time buyers, and senior and 55+ housing.

The most interesting conclusions from questions analyzed by the AI tool were those regarding geographic patterns. The patterns closely aligned with our consulting business in each of these regions.

Questions from California and the Pacific Northwest generally touched on affordability and the regulatory environment. Questions from Texas centered on development and land use, and the Southeast/Florida questions sought growth and investment advice. And in the Northeast, we noted a lot of interest in market recovery and density.

We have consultants in all these markets and more, feel free to contact any of us.