KC Real Estate Overview

Photo courtesy of the White House.

As 2012 drew to a close, our country faced one of the largest economic challenges in our history as Congress and President Obama haggled over our revenue, spending and taxing issues. So...

How does this all play out for the KC Market?

The key is that the real estate market will continue to slowly improve because there is both a great deal of liquidity as well as financing available compared to three years ago when both were absent. In Emerging Trends, it was noted that the key drivers and predictions for real estate activity in 2013 include the following:

1. Secondary and Tertiary Market Moves Since there is not enough product in some U.S. real estate markets for prudent investment, there will be a movement by investors to secondary and tertiary markets and from Class A to Class B properties.
2. Tighter Pricing Under tighter pricing, investors will concentrate on higher quality assets in key markets in order to increase investor expectations.
3. Transaction Volume Transaction volume will pick up due to the availability of excellent long-term financing, and big bank balance sheets.
4. Multifamily Multifamily investments will continue to out-perform other sectors of the market and investors will be bullish both in acquisitions and in new development. An expected demand from generation Y’ers living with parents, who will subsequently find jobs and move out on their own, will bring thousands of rents into the market place.
5. Housing Boost The housing industry, bolstered by low interest rates and the sheer force of an expanding population, will expand and cause some new home building.

In 2012, the Kansas City economy continued to steadily improve, albeit slowly. Ford and GM invested in their Claycomo and Fairfax plants respectively, and with the continued expansion in the IT and health sectors, along with companies like Cerner growing quickly, the Kansas City area economy expanded at a faster pace than the U.S. economy. In fact, the region’s gross regional product (GRP) is expected to grow at over one half percent faster than the U.S. average over the upcoming 2013-2014 projection period. The
Kansas City Metropolitan area GRP for 2012 should end the year at 2.4% for 2012 compared to 2.1% for the U.S.

This is good news as the Kansas City region can be expected to add as many as 21,200 jobs during 2013 and as high as 33,400 jobs in 2014.

To read more click here for the KC 2013 Market Report!

Contributing Author:

Kenneth G. Block, SIOR, CCIM

Managing Principal

Block Real Estate Services, LLC

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