Once a sprawling expanse of uncharted land, Las Vegas, Nevada, has evolved into the entertainment capital of the world, a gaming super-hub, and a premier destination for sports. This remarkable transformation didn’t happen overnight; it stemmed from decades of strategic planning, investment, and visionary zoning recommendations.

Las Vegas is unlike any other place in America. Each year it draws more than 40 million visitors to the dazzling casinos and hotels that “turn night into daytime”—and transform the city into a glittering jewel in the desert. With 164,000 hotel rooms, Las Vegas is the largest hospitality market in the U.S.—outpacing Orlando, Florida, the next biggest market, by approximately 15 percent, according to JLL.

Real estate investors recognize the need to incorporate physical climate risks—including wildfire, hurricanes, and excessive heat—into their business models as the prevalence and severity of extreme weather events increase. Climate-risk analytics tools have proliferated in recent years to help investors assess, price, and mitigate these physical climate risks. Investors have welcomed these tools but face challenges selecting the right provider—or providers—to meet their business needs.

After a quiet first half of 2024, CMBS originations increased 59 percent in Q3 on a year-over-year basis, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Quarterly Survey.

The outlook for the European real estate market is cautiously optimistic despite growing geopolitical uncertainty and concerns about economic growth, with London, Madrid, and Paris emerging as the standout performers, according to a new report by PwC and the Institute.

Northern Mexico has experienced a significant expansion in the Mexican industrial real estate sector since its major decline from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, due, in part, to low-cost production in China. During the pandemic, that trend began to shift.

The Covid-19 pandemic led to a foundational shift in how and where people work. As the real estate industry has sought to better understand how the pandemic has affected cities as a whole, the concept of the “urban doom loop” has frequently been mentioned as one of the most negative effects of the global health crisis, particularly in the U.S.

Kansas City’s Berkley Riverfront, on the banks of the Missouri River, is rapidly becoming one of the most promising urban developments in North America. With a history rooted in trade and commerce, and an unmatched reputation for world-class sports, the Heartland of America riverfront is on the brink of becoming a diverse, modern-day community hub of activity, blending residential, commercial, and recreational space.

A recent announcement from the Atlanta city government has once again sparked conversation around the redevelopment of a once-vibrant mall in Atlanta’s historic West End neighborhood.

As California pushes toward a clean energy future, the city of San José has emerged as a leader in building electrification, offering valuable lessons for other cities nationwide. With residential buildings representing the largest source of natural gas use in the city, San José’s initiatives aim to reshape how these buildings are powered while prioritizing community needs, equity, and affordable housing. In 2022, ULI partnered with San Jose on an Advisory Services Panel (ASP) to inform this policy direction for multifamily buildings of all types. The aim of the ASP was to support the city in enabling property owners to step up their electrification retrofit efforts, encourage the adoption of on-site solar and batteries, and move the market forward.

The U.S. economy did very well in 2024, said Barbara Denham, lead economist for Oxford Economics, and the forecast for the coming year is more of the same—both in New York City and across North America. However, in presenting Oxford’s favorable economic forecast for 2025 at a ULI New York event last month, Denham also noted many caveats ahead of the incoming U.S. administration.

Multifamily experts gathered at the University of Southern California to highlight where denser construction is creating affordability.

Released during the Institute’s 2024 Fall Meeting in Las Vegas, Emerging Trends in Real Estate® North America predicts Dallas-Fort Worth, Miami as leaders in 2025

According to the second annual C Change Survey, 93 percent of respondents report incorporating transition risks into their real estate investment decisions, indicating the industry’s growing awareness and commitment to integrate climate-related financial risks into decision-making processes.

Obsolete buildings will constitute up to 50 percent of all new housing in cities

Amblebrook, an innovative retirement community in the historic setting of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was specifically designed to remedy this social disease. It shatters the mold of the conventional 55-plus community.

The city of Baltimore has approximately 13,000 abandoned houses and 20,000 vacant lots that create health, safety, and financial hazards for nearby properties. Although it might seem simple to fix and flip these homes, the math doesn’t easily compute.

A tsunami of emptying houses of worship—up to 100,000, according to one religious source—is washing across America. Developing intelligent reuses and redevelopments for these properties will make the difference between a community flourishing and struggling. Housing advocates view underused faith properties as natural sites to develop projects that help close the great national gap on affordable housing.

Consumers have kept a steady foot on the gas this year. A record-high 197 million consumers shopped in stores or online over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). The NRF forecasts that holiday sales will grow between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent, with total retail spending in the United States falling between $979.5 billion and $989 billion during November and December. That forecast also is consistent with NRF’s annual U.S. sales growth—between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent—for 2024.

The National Retail Federation’s Hot 25 Retailers ranks the nation’s fastest-growing retail companies. Rankings are determined by increases in domestic sales between 2022 and 2023; all retail companies with global sales in excess of $2 billion, and key format leaders were eligible. 

While retail leasing in the United States has been healthy according to JLL’s Q2 data, retailers have shown a preference for smaller formats while repurposing some parking for other uses.