Market News

The U.S. economy grew 3.1% over the last year, defying projections of a recession as a resilient labor market supported strong consumer spending. The 2023 figure stands in contrast to what economists expected a year ago, when they saw a recession as very likely and expected anemic 0.2% growth for the year. Last year’s gain was a sharp pickup from a comparable 0.7% advance in 2022.

Blackstone agreed to sell the Arizona Biltmore luxury hotel to London-based private equity real estate manager Henderson Park for $705M. Almost six years ago, Blackstone acquired the property for roughly $400M from Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC and spent over $150M on property renovations.

Businesses large and small acquired some 570,000 homes in 2023, down from 802,000 in 2022. Fourth-quarter investor purchases of 123,000 represented the lowest quarterly total in the last eight quarters with 2023 on track for the largest annual drop in investor buying activity in at least 20 years.

In the heart of Boston, the 02115 ZIP Code has catapulted into having the priciest median residential real estate as ranked by price per square foot in the U.S., at $2,663 in December 2023.

Sales of previously owned homes in 2023 dropped to the lowest level in 28 years, as home-buying affordability worsened and the supply of homes for sale remained low. Existing home sales, which make up most of the housing market, slid 19% in 2023 from the prior year to 4.09 million, the lowest full-year level since 1995.

Rising interest rates drew trillions of dollars into money-market funds and other cash-like investments in the past two years, with more than $8.8 trillion parked in money funds and CDs as of the third quarter of 2023.

In 2023, $541 billion in debt backed by office buildings, hotels, apartments and other types of commercial real estate came due, the highest amount ever for a single year. Commercial-debt maturities are expected to continue rising, with more than $2.2 trillion coming due between now and the end of 2027.

Foot traffic to U.S. indoor malls was down 4% on average in 2023 from the prior year, and about 12% lower than 2019 levels. Alternatively, increasing demand for open-air space has driven up shopping-center rents to nearly $24 a square foot, the highest level since tracking the metric in 2007.

In 2023, ETFs gathered nearly $600 billion in net flows. While that’s less than some previous years, including 2021’s nearly $1 trillion record haul, it still shows the massive, sustained momentum behind ETFs.

BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, announced it is buying Global Infrastructure Partners for about $12 billion in cash and stock. The acquisition is part of the firm’s increased focus on infrastructure.