President's message: NAR Annual Convention update

By Joseph Rowley, Jr. The mood at NAR's Annual Convention last month in New Orleans was somber with a hint toward optimism. Commercial real estate (CRE) vacancies are at a record high nationally. This appears to be moving down, but the curve is very slight in the near term. It appears that net absorption across all sectors of CRE are moving into positive territory into 2011 and 2012. The apartment industry is the bright spot, continuing to perform well, and trade at the lowest cap rates. Recent legislation includes the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act of 2010, allowing the U.S. treasury to lend up to $30 billion to community banks. There are notable improvements in the programs including expanding the number of businesses eligible, raising loan limits substantially and refinance options. Check out www.sba.gov or reach out to your local small business lender for guidance. Plenty of time was allocated to the Financial Accounting Standards Board's Proposed Lease Accounting Standards Update (Leases Topic 840) under consideration. NAR will be submitting a response (Public comment due by December 15) to this Exposure Draft. More information at www.fasb.org. Click on the Projects Tab near the top and click on the Exposure Documents Open for Comments. These sweeping changes will impact all lease transactions if instituted. The changes will be finalized by mid-2011. The Expo generated a lot of foot traffic from the 23,000 attendees. New Orleans has added 300 restaurants since Hurricane Katrina (2005), which is more than they had before. The French Quarter was quite vibrant, and the warehouse district has filled up with hotels. It was quite impressive. 10th Annual NYS Commercial Real Estate Conference This coming year we will be celebrating the 10th Annual New York State Commercial Real Estate Conference! The conference, being held June 13-15, 2011, is sponsored by NYSCAR, the New York State chapters of CCIM and SIOR and the Society of Exchange Counselors. We hope that you will mark the date on your calendar and plan to attend! The Annual Conference committee will be meeting soon to start planning the event. If you have any suggestions for the conference, please send your thoughts to Sherry Marr at [email protected]. Upcoming Events * Commercial Basics: To be held March 2-3, 2011 at SUNY Ulster in Kingston. Joseph Deegan, CCIM, will be the instructor. The course provides a general overview of the commercial and investment real estate business. Learn to use the HP 10BII calculator to perform many of the functions that are used daily in commercial real estate. The course teaches you to analyze property operating data. You will learn the formulas and perform the calculations used in investment real estate transactions. Go to www.nyscar.org for a registration form. * 2011 Code of Ethics & Professional Standards Procedures Training: Sponsored by the NYS Association of Realtors. Gain a full understanding of ethics and arbitration hearings, enforcement procedures and disciplinary guidelines. The Code of Ethics and recent changes adopted by NAR's board of directors or delegate body will also be covered. In addition to six hours of CE credit, this course also satisfies NAR's mandatory ethics training requirement. The schedule is as follows: * January 20: Binghamton Regency, 225 Water St., Binghamton. * January 21: DoubleTree Hotel Syracuse, 6301 Rte. 298, East Syracuse. * February 14: Albany Marriott, 189 Wolf Rd., Albany. * February 16: Buffalo Marriott, 1340 Millersport Hwy., Amherst. * February 17: Rochester Marriott, 1890 West Ridge Rd., Rochester. * February 28: Westchester Marriott, 607 White Plains Rd., Tarrytown. * March 4: High Peaks Resort 2384 Saranac Ave., Lake Placid. For a Code of Ethics & Professional Standards Procedures Training registration form, please go to:https://www.nyscar.org/db_member_doc.php?id=83 Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for a Happy, Healthy New Year! Joseph Rowley, Jr. is the president of NYSCAR and is a VP at CBRE/Rochester, Rochester, N.Y.