REIT TIME: While inflation ticks up and housing sales cool down, owners of rental properties are reaping the benefits. Holding shares in a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) is like being a landlord without being on call to fix the plumbing. If you bought 100 shares of Englewood-based Archstone Smith a year ago, for example, your investment would have risen in value from about $4,000 to more than $5,000 recently. Chicago-based Equity Residential provided similar returns. Archstone controlled about 87,000 units nationwide last year and Equity controlled about 197,000. One factor is that average apartment rents are projected to rise more than 3.2 percent this year and in the next two years, according to real estate research firm Reis, via Reuters.
CHAMBER CHANGE: Rob Cohen, CEO of IMA Financial Group, took over as chairman of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce today – from Wells Fargo’s regional president Tom Honig – at the chamber’s annual meeting at the Hyatt Regency at the Colorado Convention Center. Schools, transportation and water storage are three issues Cohen discussed as priorities.
MOUNTAIN MATCH: Fresh off his retirement from tennis, Andre Agassi and wife Steffie Graf today announced a luxury mountain real estate project, the Fairmount Tamarack, in Donnelley, Idaho. Agassi Graf Development LLC is working with Miami-based Bayview Financial. Collaborating on the project is Vail-based architecture firm VAG, Inc.
