Is a slowing fed good news for commercial real estate?

Hey fellow young professionals, it's Chad, I hope you're all enjoying the new year so far. As you may have heard, the Fed announced last week a quarter-point increase in interest rates, bringing them to their highest level since 2007. Now, some might say that this is cause for concern, but for us in the commercial real estate game, this is actually a positive sign!

Just like how Wall-E and Eve made the perfect match in the world of robots, the investment sales market and a tempered approach to interest rate hikes are a match made in heaven. John Chang from Marcus & Millichap even said that investment sales could pick back up in the second half of the year, and with smaller hikes, investors will have the confidence they need to close deals.

As for the naysayers, some had a cautious but optimistic outlook, saying that much depends on the Fed's actions and the response of the broader economy, but that we can expect more traction in the second quarter and a broader recovery in the second half of the year.

With a bit more certainty around interest rates, and a little more confidence in the market, I'm sure we'll see things start to pick up. There are still some gaps between what sellers believe the market can bear and what buyers can actually pay, but with maturing loans forcing borrowers to sell their properties, we could see deal flow start to pick up soon.

So let's put on our power-suits like the Avengers, and get ready to tackle the commercial real estate market in the face of rising interest rates! We got this, young professionals!