🌧️ High rates & economic jitters dampen spring home sales across the U.S
💰 Brookfield’s $16B war chest aims to snap up distressed real estate bargains
🤑 Stock market volatility cools NYC’s ultra-luxury real estate segment
📚 Learn the playbook to sell technologies & services to real estate owners

Data Viz of the Week: America’s Seven Cities with Real Transit

The US only has seven cities with real transit systems—at most. 

One of them, New York, stands alone with almost 50% of commuters using public transit. The next tier - SF, DC, and Boston - have respectable transit shares, although they have a fraction of New York's population. 

Finally, Seattle, Chicago, and Philadelphia have modest transit shares and make up the rest of the list. The rest? Cars, cars, and more cars.

Upcoming Thesis Driven Courses & Classes

On May 19th, we’re launching one of Thesis Driven’s most popular courses for real estate professionals, Selling into Real Estate online--a five-week online course for founders, employees, and providers who sell products and services into the real estate industry

What You’ll Learn:

• Identifying Your Audience by Companies & Roles: What roles do property managers, asset managers, leasing agents, and principals play in the industry and the procurement process? How do you identify your top target customers, including an analysis of the different types of real estate firms, investment strategies, asset classes, and more?

• Making the Financial Case for Your Offering: How are key players in real estate measured, incentivized and rewarded, and how does that impact how they buy?

• Crafting Your Messaging: What sales messaging will resonate with customers, and how do vendors craft a sales pitch highlighting that message?

• Managing Channels and Funnels: What are the key insights and strategies on nurturing leads through the sales funnel from awareness to engagement to sale?

• Inbound & Outbound Funnels: How do vendors leverage outbound channels, earned and owned media to generate warm inbound leads? What is the role of conferences, channel partnerships and more?

• Nurturing, Negotiating & Closing Deals: Real estate owners and asset managers are extraordinarily busy. How do you rise above the noise and close the deal?

5 more days to register - Sign up here

All Upcoming Courses

• May 19: Selling Into Real Estate Owners (💻 Online): A bootcamp for people selling technology and products into the real estate industry - Sign up

• June 2: Introduction to Development (💻 Online): A first-person POV simulation for aspiring developers to learn to source, underwrite and finance a local real estate project - Sign up

• June 9: Fundamentals of Capital Raising (💻 Online): Insider’s guide to raising capital for real estate projects & platforms–from individuals, family offices and institutional investors - Sign up

• June 16 & 17: 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

Three Articles We Loved from Last Week

It’s not easy keeping up with everything. Here are three articles (+1 bonus) we loved from the past week that you may have missed:

1. (WSJ) The Spring Home Sales Season Is Shaping Up to Be a Dud

   The 2025 spring home sales season is underperforming, with buyer demand remaining weak due to high mortgage rates around 6.75% and economic uncertainty. While inventory is increasing, activity remains sluggish, particularly in the Southeast and Southwest, where prices are falling and inventories are rising.

2. (NY Post) Brookfield Raises $16 Billion to Buy Distressed Properties

   Brookfield Asset Management has secured nearly $6 billion in Q1 2025 for its latest opportunistic real estate fund, totaling $16 billion—its largest to date. The fund targets distressed assets, capitalizing on price drops of 20–40% below peak values, with initial investments in residential and warehouse sectors.

3. (NY Post) NYC’s trophy market of $10M-plus homes shows signs of ‘weakness’ after ‘wild swings in the stock market’

   New York City’s luxury housing market, particularly properties priced over $10 million, is showing signs of cooling due to significant stock market fluctuations. Only 12 contracts were signed in this price range during April, marking the lowest April figure since 2017.

Developer of the Week: Perennial Properties

One of Atlanta's most interesting new projects is coming to the East Lake neighborhood. Vela Park is bringing 382 units across a mix of multifamily and for-rent townhomes to a 12-acre site in an oft-overlooked part of the Atlanta metro.

Perennial, the developer of the project, is delivering a number of family-sized units - two- and three-bedroom apartments and townhomes - with leasing beginning this month.

You can read more about Perennial Properties on the Thesis Driven GP database here.

Know about a developer doing something cool that we should feature? Reach out to [email protected] with the tip!

—Brad and Paul