Real Estate Stock Plays

What do Lennar, DR Horton, KB Home, Pulte and Toll Bros all have in common? Well they all hire hot babes to sell their inventory, but that's not what I'm after. They are the largest publicly traded domestic homebuilders, getting warmer, but that's not it either. My point is that since June 2000 they are all up over 400%. Bingo! That's a bull market and it appears the pendulum may be swinging back to reality for these sellers of realty.

Check out this Motley Fool article and you decide:
Real Estate's 7-Year Glitch [Fool.com] March 26, 2007: "Earnings growth has deteriorated at a quicker pace than share prices have declined. Inventory levels remain chunky. By the time the dust clears, you're going to find some pretty amazing investment opportunities..."

Highwoods Sells Five More Triangle Buildings

About a year ago Highwoods published a goal to sell $500M of "non-core" assets. Their plan seems pretty smart, sell older fully depreciated buildings that are commanding a premium in this real estate bull market and reinvest the proceeds in new development.

It's working so well they have adjusted their sales goal up to at least $700M by the end of December 2007.

Investors spent $547M on Triangle offices in 2006, which is more than twice the 10-year average of $237M. That's the definition of a hot market.

Grubb&EllisThomas Linderman Graham is pleased to have helped them get $34.2M closer to their goal with this transaction.

Highlights:
Assets: 5 North Durham Office Buildings at Roxboro and Duke Street
Tenants: Duke Universtiy Health System and Qualex
Occupancy: 99%
Seller: Highwoods
Buyer: Triple Net Properties
Price: $34.2M or $124/SF
Total Square Feet: 276,329

Read Jack Hagel's N&O coverage here: newsobserver.com Five Durham buildings sold

March Madness and Global Liquidity

Here's some insight on global liquidity from Wachovia's senior economist Mark Vitner. I think it is especially timely considering the recent stock market sell off and the ever growing amount of capital pursuing real estate in our market. Good stuff for between game breaks.

GO PACK!

http://www.wachovia.com/ws/econ/view/0,,3653,00.pdf

Highwoods Sells Apartments for $45M

Today, Highwoods announced a sale of a 332 unit complex in Cary. Highwoods will make $6.1M after loans and other obligations are settled.

Deal Summary:
Name: Weston Lakeside
Location: Cary, NC
Buyer: American Realty Advisors
Seller: Highwoods and Crosland
Price: $45M
Units: 332
$/unit: $135,542

Last year investors spent $1.1B on triangle apartments.

Source: N&O and Forbes
Highwoods Sells Property for $45M - Forbes.com

Ohio firm expands Raleigh presence

Developers Diversified bought 12 Triangle area shopping centers covering over 900,000 square feet as part of a larger $6.2B acquistion.

The deal enlarges the company's Triangle portfolio to about 2.5 million square feet.

Investors spent $211 million on Triangle retail real estate in 2006 -- 11 percent above the 10-year annual average.

These centers traded in the deal:
Circuit City, Cary, 27,891 square feet
Mill Pond Village, Cary, 84,364
Meadowmont Village Center, Chapel Hill, 132,857
Clayton Corners, Clayton, 125,653
South Square, Durham, 89,622
Sexton Commons, Fuquay-Varina, 49,097
Capital Crossing, Raleigh, 83,248
Eckerd -- Perry Creek, Raleigh, 10,908
Wakefield Crossing, Raleigh, 75,927
Alexander Place, Raleigh, 143,073
Chatham Crossing, Siler City, 32,000
Capital Plaza, Wake Forest, 46,793

Read Jack Hagels story here: newsobserver.com 12 shopping centers have a new owner