Commercial real-estate insurance costs have risen 7.6% annually on average since 2017.
China v U.S.
Nearly 24% of the office-tower space in 18 major Chinese cities was unoccupied as of June. That is worse than the U.S., where office vacancy rates hit a 30-year-high of 18.2% in June.
Return to Office
TikTok introduced its MyRTO — or my return to office — app this month. It’s part of TikTok’s latest mandate requiring its U.S. workforce to commute to a physical office at least three times a week with some workers expected for a full five-day workweek.
Debt and Deficit
Federal debt held by the public now stands at 95% of gross domestic product, up from 80% at the start of 2020, and federal deficits are now 6% of GDP and projected to keep rising, from under 5% before the pandemic.
Biggest Home Buyers
Landlords with 1,000 properties or more accounted for 0.4% of U.S. home purchases during the second quarter, down from a peak of 2.4% in late 2021.
New York ADR
New York hotels charged $260 a night on average in August, roughly 17% more than the same month in 2019. That was New York’s highest rate for the month of August since 2008.
Shopping Malls
Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield said last year that it planned to shed most of its American portfolio by the end of 2023. Now, the Paris-based company intends to hold some of its top-performing malls beyond that self-imposed deadline.
Record Capital
Blackstone recently disclosed that its Tactical Opportunities business closed the fourth flagship commingled fund, Blackstone Tactical Opportunities Fund IV (BTO IV), raising a record capital commitment of $5.2 billion.
Cyberattacks
Caesars Entertainment paid roughly half of a $30 million ransom that hackers demanded after a cyberattack late this summer, another example of a major casino operator suffering from an attack as MGM Resorts grapples with the fallout of a recent incident.
Household Income
Americans’ inflation-adjusted median household income fell to $74,580 in 2022, declining 2.3% from the 2021 estimate of $76,330. The amount has dropped 4.7% since its peak in 2019.