Hello Brick Brief readers, 

Thank you for your continued support! Today we’re seeing U.S. homebuyers gain leverage, private capital continue to target discounted subscale REITs, and power production move in-house.

🏠 Buyer Power Returns
According to a Redfin analysis, 62% of U.S. homes sold below list price in 2025 as a 47% seller-buyer imbalance shifted pricing power back toward buyers. Buyers secured a 7.9% discount on average, the largest since 2012, as sellers adjusted expectations after 2020–2022 era prices stopped clearing the market.

🏗️ Private Capital Targets Subscale REITs
Brookfield Asset Management agreed to acquire IOS-focused REIT Peakstone Realty Trust for $1.2B as private capital continues to target discounted subscale REITs with limited growth prospects. Brookfield is taking advantage of persistent public-market discounts to acquire high-quality IOS assets at a discount to replacement cost and expand its industrial outdoor storage platform.

⚡ Power Platforms Go Strategic
BlackRock’s GIP and EQT are planning a takeover bid for $10.5B-listed renewable power provider AES, which owns a diversified fleet spanning renewables, gas, coal, and regulated utilities. This move is a step toward replicating Brookfield’s vertically integrated model that spans data centers, infrastructure, and power generation through Brookfield Infrastructure and Brookfield Renewable.

Federal shutdown delays January jobs report – Funding lapse shutters the BLS for a second time in five months, risking cascading delays to inflation and labor data relied on by markets and policymakers (WSJ)

Foreign capital slows U.S. CRE allocations under Trump 2.0 – International investors remain active but grow more cautious amid tariff risk, Fed independence concerns, and geopolitical volatility (CommercialObserver)

Construction materials prices rose 2.8% YoY in 2025 despite December pullback – Tariff-exposed inputs like copper surged 22%+ YoY and nonferrous metals climbed ~62%, keeping cost pressure elevated for nonresidential builders (ABC)

Partial government shutdown hits HUD and FHA – Lapse in funding stalls mortgage-related programs and flood insurance as House delays action on a Senate-backed compromise bill (NationalMortgageNews)

62% of U.S. homes sold below list price in 2025 – Buyers secured a 7.9% discount on average , the largest since 2012, as a 47% seller-buyer imbalance shifted pricing power back to buyers (WSJ & Redfin)

An 8% discount to original list price is the largest since 2012. House prices are illiquid, so sellers needed time to adjust expectations and return to reality as prices from the 2020–2022 period no longer clear the market. Price discovery is gradually occurring.

Large multifamily buildings now house a record 33.1% of U.S. renters - Pandemic-era construction and ultra-low rates shifted the rental mix toward dense apartments, while single-family rentals fell to a record-low 14% share (GlobeSt)

Luxury apartment vacancies hit 8.5% – Pandemic-era overbuilding is forcing concessions and giving renters leverage, even as national rents still rose ~0.6% YoY in 2025 (Homes.com)

Manhattan office availability tightened to 13.5% with 3.69M SF of January leasing – Sublet inventory fell to its lowest level since 2019 while asking rents climbed 5.1% YoY to $77.00 per SF (Colliers)

U.S. manufacturing retreats under Trump tariffs – Factory employment has fallen by 200K since 2023 as higher input costs and policy uncertainty stall investment and blunt the near-term impact of reshoring efforts (WSJ)

Industrial vacancies stood at 9.2% nationally at year-end 2025 with in-place rents up 5.4% YoY to $8.87 per SF – New supply fell to decade lows in 2025 as developers pivoted site selection toward power availability and energy security (CommercialCafe)

U.S. manufacturing rebounds in January as ISM PMI hits 52.6 - Post-holiday reordering and front-loaded buying ahead of tariffs lifted new orders (Reuters)

Users increase share of large logistics property purchases in early 2025 – Buyers favor newer, high-clear-height facilities as industrial sales rebound to $81B, the third-highest annual total since 2000 (CoStar)

$3T+ AI data center build-out engulfs debt markets – Hyperscalers and developers are tapping every credit channel, pushing AI exposure and refinancing risk across portfolios (Bloomberg)

Rural communities block or delay ~$100B of AI data center projects nationwide – Local backlash over power costs land use and privacy challenges Trump-era push for rapid AI infrastructure buildout (WSJ)

Data center construction spending jumps 18.4% YoY – AI-driven infrastructure demand pushes data centers to fastest-growing non-residential asset class while office and financial property construction spending falls sharply (TheRealDeal)

Group hotel demand fell for nine straight months in 2025 – Large-block room bookings weakened as corporate travel budgets tightened following tariff announcements, signaling softness in meetings and events despite mixed transient demand (CoStar)

PennyMac Financial Services shares plunge 33% on Q4 earnings miss - Faster-than-expected loan paydowns and cutthroat refi competition squeezed origination spreads, dragging down peers like Rocket Companies and UWM Holdings (Bloomberg)

Oracle raises $25B in bond sale to fund AI buildout – Strong demand eases investor concerns as Oracle pairs debt with equity to protect investment-grade rating (FT)

$10.5B-listed utility AES draws takeover bid from BlackRock’s GIP and EQT – Infrastructure investors are targeting power platforms supplying hyperscalers as AI-driven electricity demand accelerates and generation assets reprice (Bloomberg)

AES provides renewable power to large technology customers across the U.S. and operates a diversified fleet spanning wind, solar, natural gas, coal, and regulated utilities.

Brookfield already controls a vertically integrated platform that runs from data centers and fiber via Brookfield Infrastructure to renewable and nuclear generation through Brookfield Renewable. This GIP-led move is a step toward building that same end-to-end capability across the power development stack. 

Additionally, Alphabet recently agreed to acquire Texas-based clean energy developer Intersect for $4.75B to move upstream and bring power development expertise in-house. Power production is moving in-house. 

Brookfield Asset Management to buy Peakstone Realty Trust for $1.2B - Deal prices the IOS-focused REIT at a ~34% premium to its public valuation (Bisnow)

Peakstone owns ~76 industrial assets, primarily IOS yards, spread across ~14 states in logistics-oriented U.S. markets, but like many subscale REITs its lack of scale limited growth and kept shares trading flat at a persistent public-market discount. Brookfield, however, is willing to pay a premium to public-market prices to acquire high-quality assets and expand its industrial outdoor storage platform.

 Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust becomes first U.S. bank failure of 2026 - The $261M-asset lender was seized after a single legacy CRE loan tied to a failed skilled nursing deal impaired capital (Bisnow)

Tech-enabled luxury multifamily developer and operator Sekra launches with $12.5M seed round - Travis Kalanick and Oliver Ripley founded the firm to target affluent Gen Z renters in coastal U.S. and Middle East markets (Bisnow)