Consumer sentiment in December was 53.3, a decrease from over 70 in January and near historic lows. Despite low sentiment, consumer spending continues, with retailers reporting signs of a solid holiday shopping season.
Retailer Update
Retailers occupied 5.5 million more square feet than they vacated in the third quarter, a turnaround from the first half of the year. The national retail vacancy rate was 4.3% in the third quarter, with retail construction remaining near historically low levels.
Billionaires
The total number of billionaires across the globe reached new heights in 2025, due partly to the soaring valuations of tech companies and rising stock markets. Some 2,900 billionaires now control $15.8 trillion, up from about 2,700 billionaires with a cumulative wealth of nearly $14 trillion a year earlier. The number and wealth of billionaires as a whole were boosted by the second-highest number of new billionaires minted in a year—287.
Economic Growth
The OECD forecasts U.S. economic growth of 2% this year and 1.7% next year, a slight upgrade from previous projections. Global economic growth is projected to slow to 2.9% next year from 3.2% this year, with risks from increased trade barriers.
CRE Investment
Large investors have bought $4.6 billion more U.S. property than they sold so far in 2025—the first time in three years that they have been net purchasers. However, deal activity is weak compared with historic norms.
Office to Residential
Over the past two decades, developers in New York have converted nearly 30 million square feet of office space into residential living, with the pace of transformation picking up in recent years.
U.S. Deals
Deal value in the U.S. so far this year is up more than 40% from the same period in 2024 to about $1.9 trillion. And there have been roughly twice as many deals valued above $10 billion than in the same period in 2024.
RealPage Data
The Justice Department resolution limits how RealPage can use nonpublic data to propose rents that corporate landlords should charge to optimize occupancy and maximize revenues. Under the proposed settlement, RealPage can still use some nonpublic data to train its artificial-intelligence models if the information is older than 12 months. It also can use the confidential data to estimate what a new building, without any rental-property history, should charge to tenants.
Residential Pricing
About 57% of homes sold in 2025 through October had at least one price cut, indicating that a significant number of sellers are entering the market with unrealistic expectations. Between 2020 and 2024, that share was closer to 47%. For homes that sold this year with a price cut, the sale price was an average of 3.7% below the asking price.
AI GDP
Business investment in AI might have accounted for as much as half of the growth in gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, in the first six months of the year.