Feel Rich? Build Your Own NCREIF Mini-Portfolio

Today's Wired Professional...  Looking for a real world story about how the web can change the everyday life of a real estate professional?  Listen to Hugh Kelly, an independent real estate consultant in New York City; in his previous life Kelly wrote the Landauer Forecast from 1986 through 2000: "Just last week I was doing a small assignment for the London School of Economics, which wanted to know how New York's 24-hour City characteristics played out in terms of planning, public policy, and public safety issues.

"I was able to prepare for the necessary meetings with City Planning by going to the web for precinct-by-precinct crime statistics up to two weeks ago, with historical stats from 1993.  The Zoning Code with permissible uses and detailed maps was readily accessible.  And many of the public/private Business Improvement Districts had sites to review.  All in all, research that might have taken weeks was done in less than ten hours, inclusive of submitting the report electronically.

"Speaking of 24-hour cities, I am extending the research on this subject that I initiated for an IREM speech last year.  NCREIF's web site, which allows the construction of 'mini-portfolios' by MSA in terms of its returns data, yielded fascinating evidence of superior performance of 24-hour venues when compared with the All-NCREIF portfolio and a comparable set of 9-to-5 cities (Instructions below).   And, to make a visual point, I was able to download satellite images of the various MSAs in both daytime and midnight views.  Powerful illustration of how NY and Chicago 'light up' their regions, versus Dallas and Atlanta, which are visually quite isolated once the sun goes down." ... Very cool story.

Attention Bostonians...  I'll be speaking next Tuesday, May 15, at 8:00 a.m. in Boston at the Federal Reserve Auditorium on "The Next Wave: Challenges to Your Business Model" at the REFA/NEWIRE Symposium.   Hope to see you!  To register, contact Jim Wetzel at jwetzel@gbreb.com or call him at (617) 423-8700 x322. 

--Peter Pike / ppike@pikenet.com

NCREIF "Mini-Portfolios" (Kelly's instructions)...  On the NCREIF home page, click on "Indices."  On the menu segment (left-hand side of the page), click on "Customized."  This brings you into the Custom Query System, where you can specify the period you want to study, the property type(s) to include, the geographic specifications of the search, and other delimiters.  Name your search, and it is saved on system for future reference.