Questions and Answers About St. Louis Commercial Real Estate

The commercial real estate market has been affected as much as residential real estate since the recession of 2008. 

Asset Strategies, Inc. President Sheldon Harber continues to follow this sector. 

Q: The real estate bubble burst about four years ago. What's the state of commercial real estate today?

Sheldon: First, you have to separate commercial real estate from residential real estate. You have to think about where you live and what's applicable. In my hometown of St. Louis, there's not a need for additional office buildings; it's still considered to be a tenants market.

But apartments, especially garden-style apartments, they seem to have a strong demand and it does have something to do with the bubble. The bubble caused a lot of people to downsize or to not purchase homes. And then we had the issue of the banks coming in and not make financing as easily available to people, so the demand for apartments in most parts of the country has gone up.

Q: When someone wants to invest in commercial real estate, what should they be looking for?

Sheldon: The first thing they should do is to think about their objective. ARe they interested in income, are they interested in growth or a combination of both. That will lead them down the path that they should take.

Q: What's the near and mid-range future for commercial real estate?

Sheldon: It's always hard to make a prediction because one thing you can't account for is competition from new building. So there's really two factors: There's the supply-and-demand issue and the second has to do with the cost of replacement because if someone were to build a new property, it's going to be at a much higher cost than an existing property because of increased costs the past few years of materials and labor (salaries).

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