| Wishing all of those in California, particularly in our Compass family, well, who are experiencing a heatwave and wildfires. Death Valley near the border of Nevada recorded a temperature of 130 degrees! DID YOU KNOW? More than 25% of U.S. colleges plan to begin fall instruction fully or mostly online, but many are still opening up their dorms. Some are limiting space to those students with housing insecurity or other hardships. Some, like Washington State University in Pullman, Wash., plan to offer housing to students who fit into a number of defined categories, such as veterans or those with on-campus jobs. Other online-only campuses, like the University of California, Berkeley, say they’re still accepting housing applications. Some may change plans at the 11th hour, as the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, did less than 3 weeks before classes were to begin, with an announcement that it would no longer allow students whose classes are held remotely to move into the dorms. (NY TIMES) DID YOU KNOW? Fewer Floridians filed for unemployment last week than any other week since mid-March, a hopeful sign. Leisure and hospitality accounts for 40% of the USA’s long term pandemic unemployment. Destinations Florida showed tourism revenue was down more than 80%. Tourism is roughly a little under 3% of US GDP.....but in Florida, it's closer to 10%. Tourism generated roughly $26 billion in tax receipts in 2018 in Florida which helps fund schools, improve healthcare and supports other government services.
DID YOU KNOW? Commercial real-estate loans make up around 22% of U.S. banks’ total loans. For the 5 years preceding the beginning of the pandemic, global commercial real-estate investment ran to around $1 trillion a year. We might all wish for a return to the office for this reason alone..... (WSJ)
DID YOU KNOW? In Hong Kong, CBRE expects a fall of more than 15% in top-tier office rents this year. The combination of political unrest and COVID are driving this. (WSJ) Where Did All The People Go? | | | As I walk the streets of Manhattan, a question I hear asked repeatedly is: "Where are all the people?" This same question is being asked around the globe in larger towns and cities, more so in some areas than others. So I did a little research to help explain this highly unusual moment.....and this is what I discovered:
1. Big Cities are often NOT mostly locals. Most bigger cities attract vast numbers of tourists and visitors, domestic and international. New York City attracts around 60 million people annually......that's around 5 million per month or 160,000-400,000 per day. Cities like Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc also attract huge numbers of visitors and tourists. Miami attracts over 23 million per year. That's a lot of people and most of them cannot or don't want to travel right now.
2. Big Cities attract tons of daily commuters. Manhattan alone attracts about 1.6 million workers per day. Many come from outside the city. Most larger cities don't house the majority of workers and these days many are working remotely. 3. Big Cities have big colleges and schools......most are shut right now for the Summer and COVID-19 precautions. 4. Big City dwellers house many residents with second homes or those who escape for a few weeks in the Summer. They are also out of cities right now.
Add up the above and it's easier to understand why larger cities around the globe are not quite the same right now. But this will change. It's a matter of time. Not if, but when. Some say things will never be the same again, and I agree with that to a certain degree: Chances are we'll never again take for granted those (sometimes annoying) throngs of visitors, tourists, students, etc that are a critically important part of the fabric of the places we call home.....they are the VOLUME that drives commerce, jobs, growth and LIFE!
Have a Magnificent Monday!
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