Technology and innovation were hot topics at the 2019 ULI Fall Meeting in Washington, D.C. These are some of the insights that speakers and attendees shared.
Hudson Yards, Schuylkill Yards, and Port Covington are just three examples of real estate development driven by expanding and diversifying economies in the country’s Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. Economic sectors such as technology, education and medicine, financial services, and media are thriving and gobbling up space in major markets.
For more than a decade, online hospitality marketplaces such as Airbnb, HomeAway, Vrbo, and others have disrupted the global lodging industry by offering inexpensive short-term rental accommodations. But almost from their inception, these online marketplaces have been at loggerheads with officials and local communities who blame the firms for reducing tax revenue, causing havoc in some neighborhoods, and raising housing prices.
With a youthful and highly educated workforce, an expanding technology sector, and strong population growth, the U.S. West remains one of the country’s economic powerhouses. The younger demographics in the West, including California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, point to more economic benefits in the future.
With a relatively low cost of living, above-average population growth, a mild climate, and abundant land for development, the Southeast continues to be one of the most popular areas for real estate development in the United States. The region, including Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky, boasts 21 percent of the total U.S. population and accounts for 28 percent of total housing starts.
The civil rights struggle of 50 years ago—Nashville was the first southern city to desegregate public services, setting an example for activists throughout the South—continues today, but now it is more focused on economic equality. That was the main takeaway from a ULI Spring Meeting session during which panelists discussed how much the civil rights struggle has achieved and how much further it has to go.
