Affordable housing remains a huge and growing problem in the United States, despite significant efforts to alleviate the situation. Inna Khidekel, a partner in capital markets at Bridge Investment Group, points out the lack of affordable housing, which now affects more than 60 percent of the population, is turning out to be a major investment opportunity, provided investors move beyond traditional approaches.

One of the most spirited debates in commercial real estate relates to the housing choices of the millennial generation: will they generally remain in cities that cater to their lifestyle preferences as they hit their mid-30s, or will they settle down, raise children and move to the suburbs like their parents?

Investors have historically thought about development mainly as an offensive strategy, enhancing returns in up-market environments. But selective development can also serve an important defensive role as we move later into the economic cycle when core asset prices are arguably where significant risks lie.

According to the FundTracker database — published by Institutional Real Estate, Inc., parent company to this magazine — 179 infrastructure investment funds are currently on offer. Of those, 127 are closed-end funds, 46 are open-end, and six are semi-open, with an expectation they will close at some time, but not soon.

With the next recession knocking at the door, a myriad of conversations are taking place about when this will happen, what it will look like and how it will affect the real estate investment market.

Technology is now so much a part of our everyday lives that it is sometimes hard to remember when that was not so. But it was not that long ago that no one knew they needed a cell phone, a desktop computer or Facebook.

Baby boomers are entering the age of retirement, causing demand for the senior housing market to spike. And with the sector at its highest peak in the past 20 years, senior housing is experiencing some growing pains.

The push to curb climate change is reshaping the energy industry. With a shift to a low-carbon economy under way, Goldman Sachs Research has estimated that limiting global warming may require up to $30 trillion in clean-energy infrastructure investments by 2040, promising to be one of the largest infrastructure investments in history.

Ever heard of “flying cash”? No, it’s not an over-marketed form of frequent flyer miles, but one of the oldest recorded uses of paper money, introduced along the Silk Road around 800 CE. True to its airborne moniker, “flying cash” took off among Chinese merchants because it made transacting, especially over long distances, much easier than with cumbersome government-issued metal coins. The name came from the paper notes’ tendency to blow away in the wind, but could have also referred to the Chinese government’s repeated attempts to blow it out of popular use. Despite its efforts, the utility of the revolutionary technology proved too great, and eventually the Song Dynasty capitulated, issuing its own paper notes in 1024 CE.

The fourth industrial revolution is starting to change how every agricultural player, from a family farmer to a global conglomerate, produces food and related products, says a strategy + business blog report. It cites the spread of the so-called essential eight technologies (including artificial intelligence, blockchain, drones and the internet of things) to agriculture is leading to increased yields, lower costs and reduced environmental degradation. The technologies are also empowering farms to unlock plant-based innovations and increase their resilience to extreme weather events and climate change.

Andreas Calianos has been in the real estate industry for nearly 30 years and serves as an outsourced CIO. Ten years ago, in the wake of the financial crisis, Institutional Real Estate, Inc., parent company of this magazine, sat down with Calianos to discuss the long-term implications of the crisis. Recently, Calianos spoke with Institutional Real Estate Americas editor Loretta Clodfelter to revisit his calls from that time and update his views on current opportunities within the market and how the latest cycle might unfold.