What is the Outlook for 2023 Real Estate: More of the Same or Something New?

By Geraldine Serrano, Cost Segregation and Research & Development Tax Credit Specialist, Veritax Advisors

On Thursday, October 13, 2022, Financial Women of San Francisco (FWSF) partnered with Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) — East Bay, St. Mary's College of California School of Economics and Business Administration (SEBA), and the SEBA Finance and Economics Clubs to host a timely discussion with a panel of real estate experts on the outlook for U.S. real estate, with a focus on the San Francisco Bay Area in 2023.

The Panelists were:

• Heather Belfor, Director and Head of US Research, Prologis
• Molly Boesel, Principal Economist, CoreLogic
• Sonia Sharma, General Property Manager, Hines
• Wynona Sisneros, Director, Construction Loan Monitoring, First Republic Bank
• Lisa Vogel, Director of Asset Management, Wareham Development

They provided their outlook on the following topics:

• How E-commerce, inflation, having more collaborative office space, and restrictions will determine development in the Bay Area and the global economy and trade for the rest of the year and 2023.
• Location, government incentives, penalties, being environmentally responsible and having a facility closer to the consumer will affect climate change and ESG. Carbon emissions could be reduced by 50% and supply chain costs could also decline.
• The panelists offered their observations on both the local and U.S.-wide retail market. With regard to housing and new construction and development, condos have been converted to rental units and there is a trend toward smaller residential units. Instead of developments for larger homes we will see communities being built.
• The office market was significantly negatively impacted by COVID as people fled San Francisco during the pandemic. It’s a challenge to find people who want office space.
• Life science has been one of the hottest sectors and the Bay Area is a major hub for Life Science/biotech. It’s a small sector, highly specialized, super expensive to build out.

The discussion ended with the panel sharing their experiences and challenges with being a woman in the real estate industry and how to be successful. They encourage women to be open to learning and having new experiences and to take advantage of opportunities. They advise women to be confident, network, use LinkedIn, and join real estate organizations. The percentage of women in the industry has increased and continues to grow.