The U.S. office market ended 2014 on a good note and should continue this upward trend through 2017, according to 2015–2017 United States Office Overview & Forecast by Cushman & Wakefield. 

Aberdeen Asset Management recently published a report breaking down these cities into seven categories that reveal where the strongest investment opportunities lie. 

The U.S. real estate market is entering a sweet spot in its current cycle that could last for the next several years, and risk levels remain generally low, according to a recent report from MetLife Real Estate Investors. 

Capital flows in and out of regions; countries and continents are growing at an ever-increasing pace. While some foreign investors prefer to acquire assets outright and avoid the potentially complex process of acquiring a property in parallel with structuring a joint-venture agreement, most seem to prefer the security of working with someone who knows the local market. You do not have to be an international investor, however, to feel the need for a partner with local knowledge. 

For the past couple of decades, Institutional Real Estate, Inc., has been gathering the brightest minds in the institutional real estate investment community and providing a forum to discuss what is keeping them up at night. 

In the past 10 years, student housing in America has changed dramatically. As the student housing sector has ascended in amenities and investor acceptance, rewards and returns for owners and operators also have trended upward. 

Hybrid office space incorporates elements of both traditional space and the “creative” office space. Office occupiers from all types of industries are driving this secular shift by demanding the “right” mix of collaborative versus private space, natural light, and amenities such as juice and coffee bars in their offices. Traditional office buildings that cannot accommodate these needs are becoming increasingly less desirable and outdated, challenging their long-term performance within a real estate portfolio. 

Millennials are on every real estate investor’s wish list, especially apartment investors, and for good reason. Although this outsized demand is a boon today, long-term apartment investors would be wise to examine the sustainability of the factors creating it. 

The NCREIF Property Index, or NPI, started 2015 with a 3.57 percent quarterly return. This is the highest quarterly return since second quarter 2011. This strong performance was led by retail properties, which returned just below 5 percent for the quarter. 

During first quarter 2015, U.S. property sales were up nearly 50 percent year-over-year on volume of $114.7 billion, according to Real Capital Analytics, for transactions of $10 million or more. 

The amount of capital raised for debt investments nearly doubled from 2013 (21 funds, $11.3 billion) to 2014 (22 funds, $22.4 billion), according to data from IREI’s FundTracker database. 

Elliot Faulkner is head of real estate investments, Farmers Insurance Group.

The common theme underscoring all of these meetings these days is how well everything truly appears to be going for just about everyone engaged in investing or investment management. Virtually every property sector in virtually every market appears to be performing in the sweet spot. 

Like Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ancient mariner, California finds its ship listless in the doldrums of a misguided and moribund political process, bordered by vast saltwater and lacking a tailwind. While the drought is a given, misguided public policy regarding the rationing and pricing of water is the headwind.