D.C. Stribling
Economy Watch: Pending Home Sales Index Spikes
The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index rose nearly four points in March, giving some small room for optimism. Jobless initial claims fell slightly from the previous week. And Spain’s long-term credit rating took a big hit, dropping from A to triple-B-plus.
Getting Smarter: The Evolution of Smart Buildings, Part 1
The concept of the smart building has been around for more than a decade, but it’s still a little nebulous. We delve into two of the concepts — open-source technologies and submetering — to find out what they mean for building investors, owners and operators. By Dees Stribling.
Economy Watch: ADP Reports Jobs Increase
Payroll specialist ADP Employer Services reported on Wednesday that the U.S. private sector added 216,000 jobs in February. Forbes magazine released its annual list of the world’s billionaires. And the Fed said that consumer credit spiked in January by $17.8 billion — more than expected.
Corporate Cloud: How Use of Office Space Really Is About to Change
Technology is already revolutionizing workers’ relationship to the office, and commercial real estate is going to need to balance the demands of IT and emerging technologies with the benefits of face-to-face interaction.
Technology: Software Integration Comes of Age in Commercial Real Estate
Commercial real estate is notorious as a lagging adopter of new technologies, but even so, the industry is coming to appreciate the value of software systems integration. By Dees Stribling.
Economy Watch: U.S. Still Tops with Foreign Investors; Markets Stay Calm
The United States remains the No. 1 choice for crossborder investors in commercial real estate, but its popularity has slipped somewhat. And markets worldwide took it easy yesterday.
Technology: Building Commissioning Comes of Age
To twist Peter Drucker’s management adage for the use of building owners and their asset managers, “If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” By Dees Stribling.
Economy Watch: Homebuilders Less Glum; PPI Spikes; BofA Shrinks
Homebuilder confidence rose in October, after little positive direction since April 2010, while the Producer Price Index surged by 0.8 percent, higher than expected, and Bank of America relinquished its title of largest U.S. bank to JP Morgan Chase.
PBX in the Cloud: Telephony Transitions from Closet to Cyberspace
In a few years, a visit from the phone company’s tech guy to work on your PBX is going to be as obsolete as an early-morning delivery from a milkman. Traditional in-the-closet PBX is now beginning to be replaced by business phone systems based on voice-over-Internet protocols—or VoIP.
Economy Watch: Employment Disappointing, Possible Fannie and Freddie Merger, Debt Ceiling Looms
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday that the U.S. economy produced a piddling 18,000 jobs in June. That’s a lot worse than expected, even worse than the miserable May total of 54,000.