In May, the U.S. economy entered its 107 consecutive month of expansion (as measured by GDP) and now has the longest expansion of the U.S. economy in its sights – the 120 months from March 1991 to March of 2001.
People in our industry ask us all the time, how long will it last? Some use the baseball metaphor that we are already in extra innings, yet by most accounts the economy still has room to grow.
Of course there are threats to growth, such as wage inflation, lack of a robust and qualified labor supply, rising interest rates and the flattening of the yield curve. From our view, however, the property markets remain healthy, led by industrial, multifamily and self-storage sectors.
At the NAI Leadership Summit in Philadelphia we hosted at the end of March, Green Street Advisors Managing Partner Andy McCulloch stated that asset values for industrial properties had increased 11% in the recent year, while manufactured homes were up 10% and apartments by 4%. Storage was off slightly, by minus 0.1%, but judging by the sales volumes we are seeing from NAI specialists that focus on the self-storage real estate industry, that property type remains an active target for acquisitions.