Stephen Blank

Stephen R. Blank joined ULI in December 1998 as Senior Fellow, Finance. His primary responsibilities include: expanding ULI’s real estate capital markets information and education programs; authoring real estate capital market commentary; participating as a principal researcher and adviser for the Emerging Trends in Real Estate series of publications; organizing and participating in real estate capital markets programs at ULI events worldwide; and participating in industry meetings, seminars, and conferences. Prior to joining ULI, Blank served from December 1993 to November 1998 as Managing Director, Real Estate Investment Banking of Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. His responsibilities included: structuring, underwriting, and executing corporate financings including initial public offerings of common and preferred shares, unsecured debentures, and convertible bonds; property acquisitions, dispositions, and financing; and financial advisory services including mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, and recapitalizations.

On October 20, the ULI Foundation will honor Foundation Governor Michael D. Fascitelli for his contributions to the Institute and his career accomplishments in real estate finance and responsible land use. Fascitelli discusses the current state of financial markets—and what’s next for his career with ULI senior fellow Stephen Blank.
That anguished cry you heard from the capital markets during the week was the result of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) announcing that it would no longer invest in hedge funds, saying they were too time-consuming and too complex, and had produced unsatisfactory rates of return. Could real estate be next?
The Trepp survey for the week ending September 12 showed average spreads coming in about 5 basis points. The implied rate for ten-year, modestly leveraged commercial real estate mortgages was 4.0 percent, 64 basis points lower than year-end 2013. It remains a great time to be a borrower.
The Trepp survey for the week ending September 5, 2014, again showed average spreads literally unchanged as the markets got back after the three-day holiday weekend, rested and ready to take on the world’s challenges. If you are planning financing and/or refinancing this year, now is the time to put the pedal to the floor.
The Real Estate Roundtable released their quarterly Sentiment Index, with the index increasing slightly, reflecting participants’ confidence in a continuing recovery in the U.S. economy as well as increasing allocations of capital to the real estate industry.
The Trepp survey for the week ending August 22 shows average spreads literally unchanged. The implied rate for ten-year, modestly leveraged commercial real estate mortgages remained at 373 basis points—81 basis points lower than at year-end 2013.
The Trepp survey for the week ending August 15, 2014, showed average spreads coming in an average of 2 basis points. The implied rate for ten-year, modestly leveraged commercial real estate mortgages decreased to 373 basis points on the back of a 10-basis-point decrease in ten-year Treasuries.
The Trepp survey for the week ending August 8, 2014, showed average spreads continuing to widen. The implied rate for ten-year, modestly leveraged commercial real estate mortgages increased to 3.85 percent, down 79 basis points this year.
The conventional wisdom is that the Fed will allow interest rates to begin to increase later in the year. If that’s the case, why are ten-year U.S. Treasuries declining, reaching an intraday low of 2.35 percent, a rate not seen since last June?
The Trepp survey for the week ending July 25 showed average spreads declining 2 basis points on what seems to be their inexorable path to zero.
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