OpenComps Blog
With the second quarter behind us, we wanted to update you on the volume of transactions we recorded in OpenComps and the trends we are observing. We also take a look at the first half of the year as well.
The overwhelming feeling for Q2 activity is… whew! Things are cooking and stirring across all the asset types and assets are trading at a fairly brisk speed.
With the first quarter of 2013 behind us, we thought we should take a look at the volume and trend data. After observing a decrease in volume and cumulative value for hotel transactions at the end of 2012 compared to 2011, the trend in 2013 has reversed significantly and for the better. First quarter of 2013 saw 150 transaction worldwide and 113 in the U.S. vs. only 54 and 52, respectively, in the first quarter of 2012. That is a jump of 178% worldwide and 117% in the U.S. (Naturally, our tracking of non-U.S. transaction is still very sparse, so the real observable trend is in the U.S.).
We also decided to provide you with a summary of the distributions by property type and location type for the first quarter. Interestingly, investors are almost equally focused between Urban and Suburban properties with the focus on Upscale and Upper Upscale properties. (We recently updated our property types classifications to align ourselves with the latest STR classifications; clean up, though, is still in process).
Continuing with the 2012 review, here is a snapshot of the 2012 Top 5 Brokerage Firms rankings as they stand on March 6, 2013. The data is dynamic and changes when new transactions are introduced in the dataset. For the full and most up-to-date 2012 list, you can go to the hotel, office, retail and residential rankings. Don’t forget the “Top Broker” dropdown menu to see who is the most active year-to-date (2013) or create your own custom period (the default gives you the all-time ranking).
The table reflects United States only transactions as outside of the U.S., regrettably, our database does not have many datapoints. We welcome your input. The same is true for our Office, Retail and Residential data, even in the U.S. As a broker, you’ve worked hard to put the transaction(s) together. Shouldn’t you get credit for it? Register for OpenComps for free and update the transactions you’ve worked on or give us your unrecorded transactions. If you prefer to just email us, you can do so at tips@opencomps.com. Send us your one transaction or the in-house spreadsheet if you are that productive. You deserve the credit!
Finally, the table represents top sell-side brokers. In OpenComps we also track buy-side brokers. But let’s be frank, sell-side is where the action is.
As a follow up to the 2012 Year in Review for Hotels, we thought this graph would be interesting to highlight the slowdown in hotel transactions we observed in 2012. Hopefully, in 2013, we’ll see a return to growth.
And hopefully in 2013 we will also make such trend information more easily and interactively available right within OpenComps.
Here at OpenComps we hope that everyone had good holidays. Before we plunge into a hopefully busy 2013, we wanted to take a general look at what happened in OpenComps’ dataset in 2012 as of today January 2, 2013:
We are happy to announce that today we are launching our company blog at http://www.opencomps.com/blog. We plan on using this venue to keep you updated on where OpenComps is heading: tweaks, updates, maintenance and vision for the site.
We will also share with you our thoughts on real estate transactions, industry trends and other entrepreneurial thoughts. These thoughts are not likely going to be ground-breaking but, hopefully, they will give you enough of a new perspective that you find them educational and entertaining.
Since starting the site in May 2006, we have been humbled by people’s positive response on the site usefulness, speed and usability. We thank you for your support and look forward to continuing to serve you.