Market Analysis and Real Estate Economics

Real estate markets are driven by demographic and economic trends, attitudes of different population groups, life cycles, and technological change.  At SB Friedman, we analyze these forces to provide our clients with an in-depth understanding of real estate market trends, financial feasibility of projects, impacts of infrastructure on development, and the relationships between transportation and land use. Working with all major land uses, we reconcile supply and demand to project trends and impacts, and to envision future development. 

Our assessment of the financial feasibility of real estate projects helps our clients test development scenarios and make policy or investment decisions. This analysis is based on market drivers of absorption and pricing, operating methods and costs, estimates of total development cost, financing structures, and required risk-adjusted return on investment. Our work informs strategies for single- and multi-use developments as well as planning projects ranging from transforming a redevelopment site to understanding the market potentials and impacts of transportation investments at the site, community and corridor scales.

Services

Market Analysis

SB Friedman brings a unique approach to market analysis due to our extensive experience in working on the entire predevelopment process from the vision to the deal. This experience allows us to function as a “proxy developer,” guiding a market-feasible planning process that results in plans that get built. The end product of our analysis is a development program that is a forecast of what a developer can realistically build on a site or how a subarea will evolve as individual sites are developed.

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Fiscal and Economic Impact Analysis

Fiscal impact studies are an objective measure of whether development is paying its way from a local government perspective. We develop sophisticated models that accurately project all revenue sources and costs to local taxing bodies based on a thorough analysis of municipal budgets and interviews with municipal staff. We have expertise in both the average cost and marginal cost techniques in determining the costs of development.

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Land Use and Transportation

SB Friedman quantifies the catalytic influence that transportation improvements can have on development potential and future population and employment growth. We have developed a rigorous market-based approach to forecasting development impacts and socioeconomic changes related to transportation improvements.

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Project Financial Feasibility / Pro Formas

Understanding the initial financial feasibility of development projects during the planning stage is important to ensure successful implementation. We prepare development pro formas to evaluate feasibility and returns to developers and investors as part of the planning process. We routinely test alternate financial structures and conduct sensitivities to understand the order-of-magnitude need for financial assistance and form a baseline for the overall development strategy.

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Housing Needs Analysis and Affordability Strategies

SB Friedman conducts site-specific and community-wide housing needs analyses, formulates housing strategies and policies, and evaluates the effectiveness of existing housing programs. Our work builds upon our extensive experience in analyzing the market and financial feasibility of residential development, including demand for market-rate and affordable units.

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