Bookmarks: 5 Interesting Articles That May Help You This Week

Each week, I select a few articles that rise above the fray and hopefully help you on your journey in the CRE world. They pull from one of four "corners:" corporate real estate, technology, management science and anything positive. I welcome your comments on these articles.

1. Early Beginnings: How The Forbes 400 Richest Americans Got Their Entrepreneurial Start

Are entrepreneurial children more likely to become entrepreneurs as adults? And therefore more likely to gain a coveted spot on The Forbes 400? For the first time, we asked all 400 of the richest Americans about their first jobs.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there were plenty of anecdotes of these list members showing early entrepreneurial promise even as youngsters, from making beeswax candles to playing the accordion during movie admissions.

Whether they had their beginnings in plucky childhood jobs or in pioneering small businesses, many of the fortunes on The Forbes 400 originated with the drive of young entrepreneurs looking to make their mark.

2. Why Everything Is Getting Louder

Noise is never just about sound; it is inseparable from issues of power and powerlessness. It is a violation we can’t control and to which, because of our anatomy, we cannot close ourselves off. “We have all thought of killing our neighbors at some point,” a soft-spoken scientist researching noise abatement told me.

As environmental hazards go, noise gets low billing. There is no Michael Pollan of sound; limiting your noise intake has none of the cachet of going paleo or doing a cleanse. When The New Yorker recently proposed noise pollution as the next public-health crisis, the internet scoffed. “Pollution pollution is the next big (and current) public health crisis,” chided one commenter.

Noise is treated less as a health risk than an aesthetic nuisance—a cause for people who, in between rounds of golf and art openings, fuss over the leaf blowers outside their vacation homes. Complaining about noise elicits eye rolls. Nothing will get you labeled a crank faster.

3. Freddie, Fannie Offer More Competitive Loan Terms After Re-Set Lending Caps

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae lenders are once again fighting hard to make deals.

“Agency lenders are now beating banks and life companies—when they want the loans, they are beating them,” says Richard Katzenstein, senior vice president and national director with Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp. in the firm’s New York City office.

That’s a big change from just a month ago, when the mortgage giants were hiking up interest rate spreads in a frantic attempt to stay under the limits set for them by federal regulators. The interest rates offered by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae lenders were once again competitive by the first week of October 2019.

4. Accommodating Atlanta’s Future Growth: Rethinking Land Use to Make Better Transportation Decisions

By 2040, metro Atlanta is projected to grow by 2.5 million people, bringing it to 8 million people, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission. Understanding how transportation and land use can accommodate this increase was one of the subjects discussed at a recent ULI Atlanta event. The event was cohosted in partnership with Perimeter Connects and the Perimeter Community Improvement Districts.

Transit in Atlanta has a long road ahead. Speaking at the event, Georgia State Sen. Brandon Beach recounted his attempt to travel from one end of Atlanta to the other, a total of 38 miles, by using transit. The trip took him more than four hours and required visiting three websites to plan the trip across county lines.

Georgia House Bill 930, which was sponsored by Beach, was designed to expand mass transit in metro Atlanta and allow for more coordination across county lines, becoming law in 2018.

“If we do make it easy and we make it simple to get from point A to point B and if we can figure out that last mile, either through Uber or e-scooters or what to get you to your job, I do think people will look at mass transit and public transportation as an option,” Beach said.

5. US 2019 Holiday Season Preview

The 2018 holiday season was one of the best in recent years, with strong growth rates posted both online and at brick-and-mortar on the back of a robust consumer economy. But the conditions might not be as favorable as we look ahead to the 2019 holidays.

Total retail spending was up 5.4% to $998.32 billion, falling just shy of our earlier forecast of $1.002 trillion, with the shortfall coming from the unexpected drop in gas prices to end the year. Traditional retail was very strong, with brick-and-mortar sales rising 3.9% to $874.42 billion and ecommerce soaring 16.7% to $123.90 billion.

Cyber Monday was the heaviest online spending day in history, with a reported $7.87 billion. Meanwhile, Thanksgiving and Black Friday both continue to experience significantly above-average growth rates as they become more important shopping days for ecommerce.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great a hugely impactful week!

Ken Ashley