Hello Brick Brief readers, 

Thank you for your continued support. Today we’re seeing single-family home prices rise, life science leasing improve, and firms continue to roll out AI tools for a broader set of real estate workflows.

🏡 Single-Family Prices Stay Elevated
Single-family home prices rose 0.6% MoM in November despite a lack of new supply, as price gains continued to outpace income growth and strain affordability. Case-Shiller price growth held at 1.4% YoY in November, as tight supply supported Northeast and Midwest markets, while improving inventory and new-construction competition pressured prices across much of the South and West.

🧪 Life Science Leasing Shifts Toward Manufacturing
Alexandria Real Estate Equities delivered its strongest leasing quarter of 2025, with 1.2M SF signed in Q4, as global pharmaceutical tenants drove 82% of leasing tied to manufacturing expansion; Alexandria is seeing notable tailwinds from pharma onshoring driven by Trump’s tariff policies, which are helping offset COVID-era life science supply pressure. The REIT is accelerating $581M of asset sales to exit standalone buildings and refocus on large, multitenant life science campuses in Boston, San Diego, and San Francisco.

🤖 AI Tools Move Into Day-to-Day Workflows
Fundrise launched investment analysis RealAI to give individual investors analyst-level CRE property and market data, powered by its proprietary data platform. AI is moving beyond dashboards and spreadsheets: Home Depot rolled out Material List Builder AI to generate contractor job material lists in minutes, helping protect margins and improve efficiency as cost pressures persist.

Fed expected to hold rates steady after three cuts – Officials say policy is well positioned to balance cooling labor markets and still-elevated inflation as Powell faces renewed scrutiny over Fed independence (Bloomberg)

Dollar slides to ~4-year low after Trump shrugs off weakness - Markets priced in tolerance for a weaker dollar (WSJ)

US consumer confidence sinks to ~12-year low – Weaker labor market views and persistent price pressures raise risks of more cautious household spending despite resilient asset markets (Reuters)

REIT IPOs dry up as CRE stays private – Abundant private capital, public market discounts, and data center take-privates push firms toward private recapitalizations instead of new listings (Bisnow)

This IPO drought extends the trend of subscale REITs liquidating or being taken private to unlock value amid NAV discounts and limited growth prospects.

Hedge fund Third Point targets CoStar board overhaul – Activist wants CoStar Group to refocus on its core commercial business and exit or shrink residential platforms like Homes.com (Reuters)

HUD funding uncertainty threatens supportive housing pipelines – Proposed caps on Continuum of Care grants create financing gaps that could delay projects, strain operators, and put permanent supportive housing for vulnerable tenants at risk (Bisnow)

Trump orders federal takeover of LA wildfire rebuilding – The administration moves to bypass state and local permitting after ~$100B+ in fire damage, shifting reconstruction authority to federal agencies (CommercialObserver)

US single-family home prices rise 0.6% MoM in November – Price gains continue to outpace income growth, keeping affordability strained as mortgage rates hover near ~6.1% (Reuters)

November home prices saw significant appreciation despite a lack of new supply and subdued transaction activity

Case-Shiller price growth holds at 1.4% YoY in November – Tight supply continues to support Northeast and Midwest markets, while improving inventory and new-construction competition are pressuring prices across much of the South and West (Realtor.com)

Single-family permits fall 7% as builders pull back – NAHB data shows affordability and financing pressures slowing single-family construction while multifamily permitting holds (GlobeSt)

Median monthly HOA dues hit $135, and nearly 44% of listings now carry an HOA fee – A growing affordability drag that is most acute in Florida metros, where HOA costs consume a large share of monthly payments (Realtor.com)

Apartment supply drops below 100K units in Q4 for first time in ~3 years – New deliveries fell to ~89,400 units as construction pullbacks accelerated, led by a sharp slowdown across Sun Belt markets (RealPage)

Renter urgency shows early signs of rising as supply wave fades – Apartment List data points to a late-2025 inflection as slowing multifamily deliveries begin to shift leverage away from renters, especially outside oversupplied Sun Belt markets (GlobeSt)

Co-working rebounds as flexible office demand returns – Pfizer, Amazon, JPMorgan, and other large employers use shared offices to support hybrid work, satellite hubs, and shorter commutes (WSJ)

Office utilization jumps to 53% as hybrid work tightens space – Higher peak-day usage is driving denser layouts and desk sharing even as most firms still plan to shrink overall office footprints (GlobeSt)

General Catalyst signs 70K SF office lease at Brookfield Properties Pier 70 Building 12 at 1070 Maryland Street in San Francisco, CA – Venture capital firm relocates from SoMa into renovated Pier 70 waterfront building (TheRealDeal)

Candid Health signs 29K SF office lease at GFP Real Estate 675 Avenue of the Americas in New York City, NY – Billing platform relocated from 44 West 28th Street to seven-year deal in Flatiron submarket (CommercialObserver)

Jackson Laboratory signs 41K SF life sciences lease at Elevate Research Properties Hudson Research Center at 619 West 54th Street in New York City, NY – Genetics research firm expands Manhattan footprint following October acquisition of New York Stem Cell Foundation (CommercialObserver)

Hansoh Bio signs 32K SF life science lease at Altus Realty and Velocis’ Research Square at 1500 Research Boulevard in Rockville, MD – Deal launches leasing at the redeveloped life science campus (ConnectCRE)

Industrial demand shifts inland along North–South rail corridors – Reshoring is lifting Midwest and Southeast markets with strong rail and labor access (GlobeSt)

Northeast logistics vacancy hits 8.2% in Q4 – Leasing totaled 16.1M SF while rents fell 3.8% YoY to $13.94/SF; 3PLs and manufacturers remained the primary demand drivers (CBRE)

Amazon leases ~1.1M SF industrial space at CapRock Partners’ West 202 Logistics in Phoenix, AZ – E-commerce giant takes largest building at eight-building logistics campus near I-10 and Loop 202 (TheRealDeal)

Amazon shuts Amazon Fresh and Go stores – The company retreats from branded physical grocery after failing to find a scalable economic model, shifting focus back to Whole Foods and online grocery delivery (Bloomberg)

Meta signs up to $6B fiber deal with Corning for AI data centers – The partnership locks in long-term optical supply as Meta ramps AI data center capacity and Corning scales U.S. production (Reuters)

NextEra offers ~1.7 GW of nuclear power to tech firms – AI data center demand is driving companies to pay a premium for round-the-clock carbon-free electricity from existing reactors (Bloomberg)

Brennan Investment Group scraps proposed ~$2B data center campus in Barrington Hills, IL – Developer withdrew plans after early resident backlash and negative local feedback (TheRealDeal)

Alexandria Real Estate Equities leases 1.2M SF in Q4 – Nearly double its five-quarter average and the REIT’s strongest leasing quarter of 2025 (CoStar)

Alexandria plans $581M in life sciences asset sales – The lab-focused REIT looks to dispose of stabilized and non-core life sciences properties as leasing stalls and biotech funding pressures weigh on FFO (CommercialObserver)

Occupancy: Alexandria Real Estate Equities expects portfolio occupancy to remain ~90% in 2026.

Biotech demand in 2026: Management sees 2026 demand as highly dependent on venture funding, IPO activity, and the pace of drug approvals amid ongoing regulatory leadership turnover.

Manufacturing-driven leasing: Global pharmaceutical tenants drove 82% of Alexandria’s leasing over the past year, with expanding manufacturing needs emerging as a growing source of incremental demand alongside traditional lab and office space. Pharma onshoring driven by Trump’s tariff policies is a noticeable tailwind that is helping to offset some of the COVID-era life sciences supply pressure

Campus focus: Alexandria is accelerating asset sales to exit standalone buildings to recycle capital into newer, large multitenant life science campuses in core markets: Boston, San Diego, and San Francisco

FAT Brands files for Chapter 11 with ~$1.45B debt load – The owner of Fatburger, Johnny Rockets, and Twin Peaks defaulted on whole-business securitization debt after missed interest payments (Bloomberg)

S2 Capital issues ~$70M capital call for 2024-vintage private multifamily REIT in Dallas, TX – Scott Everett’s firm warned investors that failure to raise preferred equity could force asset sales at ~5.5% cap rates, implying 60%–75% equity losses (TheRealDeal)

The 2024-vintage REIT was a restructuring vehicle for multifamily assets underwritten in the 2021–22 low-rate environment that were under pressure from floating-rate debt.

Home Depot launches Material List Builder AI to automate contractor materials planning – The tool cuts hours of manual estimating into minutes, helping Pros protect margins and improve efficiency as construction costs rise and profit expectations weaken in early 2026 (HousingWire)

Fundrise launches RealAI to democratize CRE analysis – The new platform gives individual investors analyst-level property and market data using trillions of proprietary data points for a ~$69 monthly fee (CNBC)