📈 Mortgage rates are climbing again;
💸 Signs of life for CRE after the $3.5bn Rock Center refi;
📞 Call Peoria, AZ City Council for your next CRE development opportunity;
🏚️ Why home improvement businesses will thrive in the Northeast;
📚 Get smart on real estate in 2025—in NYC and online;
🚵 Check out Bozeman’s new car free community, by Bridger

Data Viz of the Week: Rise of the South

A significant North-South divide exists in the age of American homes. Most homes in the Northeast and Midwest were built prior to 1960, whereas the South has a newer stock thanks to Americans seeking warmer climates, lower taxes, and job opportunities over the past 20 years.

Upcoming Thesis Driven Courses & Classes

Sharpen your real estate IQ on capital raising, selling into real estate owners, developing local real estate projects, and more.

Upcoming Courses

• January 13: Selling Into Real Estate Owners (💻 Online): A bootcamp for people selling technology and products into the real estate industry - Sign up

• January 14-15: Fundamentals of Capital Raising (🗽Live in NYC): Insider’s guide to raising capital for real estate projects & platforms–from individuals, family offices and institutional investors - Sign up

• January 28-29: Introduction to Development (🗽Live in NYC): A first-person POV simulation for aspiring developers to learn to source, underwrite and finance a local real estate project - Sign up

• February 10: Fundamentals of CRE (💻Online): A bootcamp providing an insider’s view of “a day in the life” of key industry stakeholders, with real-world insights and applications - Sign up

Thesis Driven Classes—1-hour micro courses on specific topics—are coming soon!

Three Articles We Loved from Last Week

It’s not easy keeping up with everything. Here are three articles we loved from the past week that you may have missed:

1. (AP News) Average rate on a 30-year mortgage climbs to 6.85%, highest since July, as bond yields keep rising. U.S. mortgage rates have climbed to 6.85% for a 30-year fixed-rate loan—the highest level since July—driven by rising bond yields and ongoing inflation pressures.

2. (MarketWatch) Commercial real estate is still on thin ice heading into 2025 — but investors see best entry point in 15 years. Despite challenges in the U.S. commercial real estate market, such as declining property values and high interest rates, significant financings like the $3.5 billion refinancing of Rockefeller Center indicate renewed investor interest, suggesting that 2025 may offer the best entry point for investors in 15 years.

3. (The Real Deal) City outside Phoenix to develop nearly 7,000 acres of state land. Peoria, a city northwest of Phoenix, has agreed to invest $140 million in infrastructure to prepare 6,700 acres of state land—dubbed the Peoria Innovation Core—for phased development over the next 20 years, aiming to attract residential, commercial, and industrial projects.

Developer of the Week

Each week, we feature a different real estate GP doing something special.

This week, our featured developer is Bridger Land Group. Based in Los Angeles, they’re building one of our favorite car-free communities in Bozeman, Montana. Check it out!

Check them out here on the Thesis Driven database!

—Brad and Paul