Reimagining Cities-Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop

high-density, Walkable Urban places might make residents vulnerable to infection and then due to the reemergence of many of the old fears of cities from the second half of the 20th century. In the 15 sample cities, city populations once again declined, dropping 1.9% from the end of 2019 to the end of 2020. However, the post-pandemic population decline has once again reversed, with a slight rebound from 19.2% in 2021 to 19.8% at the end of 2023. This population gain showed that, once again, the city population growth rate was climbing, while the suburbs were slightly declining. This is an indication that the “return to the city” trend may have reemerged. Role of Real Estate in the U.S. Asset Base Why are metropolitan and central city development trends important? For one, because the built environment is the largest asset class in the economy . To purchase the entire U.S. and all its asset classes, you would have to write a check for $168 trillion (about $520,000 per person in the U.S. as of 2023). 10 Real estate assets make up $63.5 trillion, about 37.8% of all U.S. assets. 11 Breaking down these real estate assets, for sale residential properties account for 25.9% of the total U.S. assets ($43.5 trillion), while commercial and income-producing real estate makes up 11.9% (about $20 trillion). 12 Publicly- and privately-owned infrastructure that connects these real estate assets is estimated to be 14.9%, about $25 trillion as of 2022. 13 This means the built environment (real estate and infrastructure) is worth $83.5 trillion (about $260,000 per person in the U.S.) or 52.7% of the asset value of the U.S. economy . The built environment—both real estate and infrastructure—is by far the largest asset class in the economy. It also plays a crucial role in local government funding. In 2021,

local governments collected $609 billion in property taxes, or 30% of their local general revenue. 14 RESEARCH APPROACH To analyze metropolitan areas and cities, Places Platform, LLC has developed proprietary intellectual property tools, including its Place-based Analysis , which analyzes real estate data from the parcel level up.

TOTAL UNITED STATES ASSET ALLOCATION Real estate and infrastructure assets, with comparisons to other assets (e.g., bonds, stocks, business ownership and cash)

25.9%

47.3%

11.9%

14.9%

For-sale Housing Commercial/Income Property

Infrastructure All Other Assets

Source: Places Platform, LLC and Cushman & Wakefield Research based on analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, CoreLogic, Real Estate Roundtable, U.S. Department of the Treasury

10 National Data: National Income and Product Accounts. Table 5.10 Changes in Net Stock of Produced Assets (Fixed Assets and Inventories). Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce. Nov. 2023. 11 Malone, Thomas. “Residential Real Estate: Largest US Asset Class but Not Biggest Economic Driver.” CoreLogic. 12 Commercial Real Estate By The Numbers: 2023. The Real Estate Roundtable. 2023.; Vernon, Hannah. “Total Value Of All Residential Real Estate Hits Record $47 Trillion.” b Magazine. 2023. 13 Financial Statements of the United States Government for the Fiscal Years Ended September 30, 2022, and 2023. Bureau of the Fiscal Service. U.S. Department of The Treasury. 2022. 14 Tax Policy Center Briefing Book. Urban Institute and Brookings Institution. Updated Jan. 2024.

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