Emerging Trends in Real Estate

“The skies are finally clearing over commercial real estate markets, even if some dark clouds still linger. Industry people are more sanguine than a year ago, though also realistic. Better times are ahead, but the healing will take time.

These are some of the conflicting yet generally hopeful messages revealed in our survey of industry experts and our interviews with industry leaders conducted for the 2025 edition of Emerging Trends in Real Estate®. Anticipation of an inflection had been building over the past year as inflation started to ease, though the wait took longer than most real estate people had expressed hope for in our prior report. The pivot arrived in summer 2024 with eight magic words from Federal Reserve Bank Chair Jay Powell: “The time has come for policy to adjust.” With that pronouncement at the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole Economic Symposium in late August, Powell clearly communicated to markets that inflation had been tamed and the COVID era of tightening was ending.“