Location Strategy Chartbook 04.11.2026

Federal Reserve: The authors estimate that the tariffs implemented through November of 2025 can explain the entirety of excess inflation in the core goods category and contributed to a 0.8 percent boost in core PCE prices through February 2026.

Liz Ann Sonders, Schwab: February personal income -0.1% month/month vs. +0.3% est…personal spending +0.5% vs. +0.6% est.

The University of Michigan has been conducting a consumer confidence survey for 74 years (starting in 1952). The lowest reading in this history is the number out Friday for April 2026 at 47.6.

WSJ: Most office sales reflect the sector’s steep decline. Even higher-quality properties on average have dropped about 35% in value from their peak, according to analytics firm Green Street. Buyers, meanwhile, are picking up office towers in major U.S. cities for roughly the price of a three-bedroom condo unit in Manhattan. Investors purchased 204 distressed office buildings nationwide last year, up from 133 sales in 2024, according to data firm MSCI.

Calabria in Chicago plans to convert the office building into an urban farm and education center. He is working with Farmzero, which will use grow lights and hydroponic farming techniques to produce millions of pounds a year of berries, tomatoes, lettuce, herbs and other vegetables.

“The buy-in at this distressed price allows us the opportunity to afford change,” Calabria said.

At the start of the year, more than 90,000 apartments nationwide were in the process of conversion nationwide, up 28% from a year earlier, according to data firm RentCafe. New York City’s obsolete buildings are leading the way, but tax breaks and other government incentives are helping spark similar projects in Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Multifamily completions in Q1'26 came in at one of the lowest levels in 7+ years

Austin is still permitting at pre-2019 levels, despite low & falling metro rents while SF rents are double Austin's

Apartment rents increased in March (the start of the leasing season), but more muted than normal.

Demand remained solid despite the economic headwinds, but still playing catch up to the supply overhang from 2023-25 (biggest supply wave since 1970s).

There are 21 U.S. markets where Class C rents are falling at least 4% YoY. Of those, all but one have supply expansion rates ABOVE the U.S. average.

There's no demand issue in any of these 12 markets. They're all among the absorption leaders nationally -- places like Austin, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Raleigh/Durham, Atlanta, Tampa, Dallas, Charlotte, Orlando, etc. But they all have a lot of new supply.

Where are Class C rents growing most? In markets with little new supply. Class C rent growth topped 4% in 22 of the nation's 150 largest metro areas, and nearly all of them have limited new apartment supply.