Over my past 20 years in the commercial real estate industry, I have seen Dr. Mark Dotzour speak no less than 15 times. This week I had the opportunity to hear him speak at a packed room in Fort Worth.
Given the uncertainty of the economy, inflation, housing prices, supply chain issues, rising interest rates, and more, this was a very timely and needed presentation. Dr. Dotzour did not disappoint. In my humble opinion, this was one of the best and most informative sessions I have attended.
Rather than give a synopsis of my takeaways, I will give you my entire notes from the event. I am certain you will find many nuggets of value that you can use over the coming months/years.

- We are getting back to NORMAL
- House prices don’t always go up 20% per year!
- MD started presentations in 1997
- Since then he has not been predicting rising inflation or rising interest rates
- That has now changed
- We Are Not In Ordinary Times

- How did mortgage rates get to 2.65%?
- Fed Reserve engineered and manipulated them
- Next time we have a recession (maybe more than one?)
- 30-yr fixed rate mortgage will go down to 2.00%
- If that is not low enough, Fed will drop it even more
- THIS IS THEIR TOOL to fight recession (they control the 10-year treasury)
- Don’t believe it, research Denmark 0% interest rates
- Because of this tool and the Fed’s propensity to use it, home prices will continue to rise (over time)
- What happens when they eventually drop rates down to 0.5% or 0.00%
- Don’t Ask – you won’t want to know the answer
- Grand Social Experiments in the Past that had Sever Consequences
- 1981 Tax Reform
- 1986 S&L tax treatment
- 2005 No Doc loans
- 2008 ARM’s flood the market
- Tectonic Experiments TODAY
- Massive monetary policy and fiscal stimulus at same time (while the economy is rapidly recovering)
- Defunding the oil and gas industry
- Guess what, everyone will NOT own an electric car next year
- HIGH OIL PRICES will be here for quite a while!
- Unprecedented labor shortage
- No one wants to work; and we continue to screw up immigration reform and create legal immigration
- Labor shortage causes wages to RISE; this creates LONG-TERM inflation
- 12 Million open jobs today
- 92% of business owners report FEW or NO qualified applicants for open positions
- Changing desires for the future from young people; many don’t want to work like their parents
- China in a secular decline
- Work and manufacturing will eventually come back to US and Mexico
- NAFTA corridor will benefit
- Opportunity in industrial??
- Working from home
- Value of an office building is UNKNOWN
- What will be the demand for office?
- 60% of people do not want to go back to the office
- CPA firms (accountants) no longer want to come and work in an office
- Changing community policing strategies
- Social experiment happening (Portland, OR; NYC; San Francisco)
- 1.9M have left NYC
- 1.6M have left Chicago
- This will benefit Texas, but it really SUCKS for our country
- Other beneficiaries include UT, FL, NC
- Fed will raise long and short-term rates rapidly
- Fed only has 2 tools
- Raising/lowering ST interest rates
- Raising/lowering LT mortgage rates
- Fed must slow the economy (because it is on fire)
- If ONE failed experiment can dramatically affect the economy, what could happen if we have 7 (see above) failed experiments??????
- How do you make prices go down when you have a limited supply of things?
- DEMAND DESTRUCTION (lower demand)
- Ie: a whole bunch of people will become unemployed
- Household net worth has increased from $110T to $150T in past 24 months

- In past 12 months, amount of money in household checking accounts has risen from $1T to $4T
- John Deere labor contract settlement (last year)
- Wages go up 29% over the next 6 years
- Globalization is Deflationary
- The tide is now turning
- Production is beginning to return to the US and Mexico
- China is now our ENEMY
- People (countries) are rapidly pulling production out of the country
- China controls many (70%) of the raw materials needed for phones and EV
- China controls 80% of global battery chemical refinement
- Farmland up 22% in 2021
- CRE up 24% in 2021
- Quarterly total return on CRE was 6.15% in Q42021; the highest appreciation in the history of the NPI, which began in the first quarter of 1978
- Calipers and New York pension fund are increasing allocations to real estate

- MD expects prices to continue to increase over next 3-5 years
- How long will it take to stabilize the economy??
- 1970s it took 4 Recessions in 12 Years to slow down inflation to 2%

- What will Fed Funds rate need to be to slow down/cause recession?
- Fed has announced they will raise it to 3.5%
- NOTE: Recessions are not the end of the world; they are a necessary fact
- Dotzour’s Key RE Investment Criteria
- Employment Growth
- Moderate Supply Growth
- SPA Quotient
- Safety for residents living in area
- Protection of businesses located in the area
- Positive local business Attitude toward employers
- Cities Facing Huge Challenges (ORC = Organized Retail Crime)

- Circa 2010 – Congress passed Dodd-Frank
- This has put restrictions on community banks from lending to developers to build lots
- No lots = housing supply shortage
- Normal market should see around 2.0% increase in home prices each year
- BEWARE of the coming media stories about housing demand falling
- Our appreciation was around 20% last year
- Prediction on cap rates for CRE?
- MD does not think CRE prices are going to fall, thus cap rates are not likely to significantly rise
- They (cap rates) are SOMEWHAT tied to 10-year Treasury
- There have been times in the past 40 years when the 10-yr Treasury increased significantly with NO impact on cap rates
- 2013, rates went up almost 2%, cap rates did not rise
- RISK could be a factor that cap rates increase, rather than Treasury rates
- Industrial and MF are two darlings of global investors
- Amazon just announced they have over-built and will have to sub-lease some of their facilities
- Highlighting some of the RISK in the market
- What is the TRUE inflation rate?
- In 1982, government pegged Social Security to inflation rate
- Over next 10-12 years, CPI was changed about 9 times
- Every time it was change, it was to LOWER the reported inflation rate
- So what is the TRUE inflation rate? Significantly more than is being reported.
Download Dr. Dotzour’s PowerPoint presentation here