The Das Group, Columbus, OH (2026)

05/16/2026

Construction costs are rising again.

And that matters because development is already a math problem.

Construction input prices jumped 6.2% between January and April 2026 (Data: ABC / BLS).

When materials get more expensive, developers have three options:

👉 Raise prices 👉 Accept thinner margins 👉 Delay or cancel projects

In a market already dealing with higher rates, tighter lending, and affordability pressure, that becomes a real constraint.

Because if fewer projects pencil…

fewer projects get built.

And if fewer projects get built…

future supply gets tighter.

Rising construction costs don’t just hit builders today.

They can shape inventory, affordability, and pricing tomorrow.

Watch construction costs, building permits, and project delays.

That’s where future supply pressure starts to show up first.

05/11/2026

Most investors are still watching rates.

The sharper ones are watching insurance.

Insurance isn’t just a line item buried in the operating statement anymore. It’s becoming a valuation variable, especially in markets where climate risk, replacement costs, carrier pullbacks, and rising premiums are changing the economics of ownership.

A property can still look stable from the outside while the financial performance is quietly weakening underneath.

That’s the part casual investors miss.

In our newest insight, we break down why insurance is becoming one of the most underestimated risks in real estate, how it impacts NOI and valuation, and why the next decade may create a wider divide between resilient markets and fragile ones.

The real question isn’t just, “Where do people want to live?”

It’s, “Where does ownership still make sense?”

Read the full insight. Link in bio.

05/05/2026

Rate lock is real.

But life still happens.

Right now, roughly 20% of U.S. mortgages are under 3% and nearly 70% are under 5%.

On paper, those homeowners should never move.

But people don’t make housing decisions on spreadsheets alone.

They move because of life:

Marriage.
Kids.
Divorce.
Job changes.
Aging parents.
More space.
Less space.
A new chapter.

At some point, the home that made financial sense stops fitting the life being lived inside it.

That’s the part the market is starting to feel.

The low rate was powerful.

But it was never permanent handcuffs.

So… If you’re watching housing inventory, don’t just watch mortgage rates.

Watch new listings, days on market, and price cuts.

That’s where you’ll see whether rate lock is easing… or sellers are starting to lose leverage.

People don’t just move when the math is perfect.

They move when the need becomes real.

04/28/2026

Real estate rarely makes people wealthy overnight. It does it through time, leverage, and discipline.

Since 1956, U.S. homes have appreciated in almost every year (with the major exception being 2007–2011).

But the real power isn’t just appreciation.

It’s appreciation with leverage.

A 10% gain on a $500K home creates $50K in equity.

With $100K down, that’s a 50% return on cash before expenses.

Powerful.

But only if you buy well.

Leverage rewards discipline. It punishes ego.

The game isn’t timing the perfect year.

It’s owning the right asset long enough for time to work.

04/18/2026

Housing isn’t “unaffordable.” It’s just… rarely been affordable.

The government defines housing as affordable when it costs 30% or less of income.

Look at the data.

We’ve spent most of the last 20 years above that line.

Right now, we’re sitting at around 41% of median income needed to afford the median home (near the higher end of the range).

So yes, this is one of the tougher stretches we’ve seen.

But it’s not unprecedented.

Because at the end of the day, housing doesn’t need to feel “cheap” to function.

It just needs buyers who can stretch… and lenders willing to support it.

That’s why affordability is less about a fixed number and more about what the system can sustain.

Practical takeaways:
👉 Don’t anchor to what housing “should” cost
👉 Underwrite based on today’s reality, not yesterday’s market

04/17/2026

The housing market math is getting weird.

In some U.S. cities, home prices have moved so far ahead of local incomes that affordability barely feels connected to reality anymore.

This ranking compares home prices to median household income, and it shows something bigger than a list of expensive places. It shows where wages have stopped keeping pace with housing, where local buyers are getting squeezed harder, and where strong incomes no longer go as far as they used to.

California dominates the list, which won’t surprise many people. What’s more interesting is how a few other metros are starting to show the same disconnect. That’s usually the early sign of a market where pricing has pulled away from local fundamentals.

For buyers, that means a much higher barrier to entry.

For renters, it often means ownership gets pushed further out of reach.

And for investors, it raises the more important question: which markets are still supported by real income growth and demand, and which ones are simply being carried by momentum?

That’s really the distinction that matters.

When affordability breaks down, markets tend to split in two directions. Some can keep sustaining premium pricing because they have real supply constraints, strong incomes, and durable demand. Others start to look stretched, where prices ran ahead of what the local economy can realistically support.

That’s why this isn’t just a story about what’s expensive. It’s a story about what’s justified.

Because price by itself doesn’t say much.

Price relative to income says a lot more.

Which city on this list surprises you most?

04/15/2026

Everyone’s talking about AI like it’s a software race.

It’s starting to look a lot more like an infrastructure race to us.

Nearly half of the AI data centers expected to come online in the U.S. by 2026 are now facing delays or cancellations, including major projects tied to OpenAI’s Stargate initiative.

That’s a loud signal.

Because while everyone’s busy obsessing over bigger models, better chips, and what AI can do next, the real issue is a lot less glamorous: The physical backbone needed to power all of this isn’t ready.

And the bottlenecks aren’t exotic. In fact, they’re painfully basic:

👉 Not enough power
👉 Not enough electrical equipment
👉 Hardware supply constraints
👉 Trade tensions making key materials harder to get

In other words:
AI may be moving at warp speed… but the grid is still tying its shoes.

And that’s where this gets interesting.

Out of roughly 12 gigawatts of expected new AI data center capacity, only about one-third is actually under construction right now.

So while AI demand is accelerating, the real world is basically saying: “Great. Now where exactly are you plugging all this in?”

That means this isn’t just a tech story anymore.
It’s a power story. A land story. A logistics story. A who-got-there-first story.

The winners in the next phase of AI may not just be the companies with the smartest models.
They may be the ones that secured power, land, fiber, equipment, and permitting before everyone else showed up.

And that’s where real estate comes in.

Because as power gets tighter, the most valuable land may not just be in the fastest-growing markets.

It may be the land closest to substations, transmission access, fiber, and jurisdictions that won’t take forever to approve a project.

So yes, AI is changing software.

But it’s also starting to reprice industrial land, powered sites, and secondary markets that can support large-scale compute.

Turns out the next AI gold rush may be won less by code… and more by whoever controls the dirt under the power lines.

04/12/2026

The housing market is sending a signal.

Right now, 52.2% of U.S. listings are sitting 60+ days without going under contract.

That’s:
👉 Up from 50.1% a year ago
👉 The highest share since 2019
👉 Roughly $347B in stale inventory

That doesn’t just mean demand is weak.

It means the market is losing speed.

Homes aren’t moving like they used to.

They’re sitting longer, getting repriced, and forcing more discipline on both sides of the table.

That shift matters.

Because when inventory stops clearing, pricing power starts to change.

For buyers, patience starts to matter more.

For sellers, strategy matters more than optimism.

For investors, this is where better entries start to show up.

Practical takeaway:
Watch listings sitting 45–90 days.
That’s often where leverage begins to appear.

04/10/2026

Foreclosures are rising again.

And most people are asking the wrong question.

They’re asking:
“Is this the start of a crash?”

That’s not the right lens.

Because the data tells a more nuanced story.

In February 2026, nearly 40,000 properties had foreclosure filings in the U.S.

That’s up roughly 20% year over year.

Foreclosure starts were up 14%.
Completed foreclosures surged 35%.

So yes, activity is increasing.

But context matters.

Foreclosure levels today are still well below historic crisis levels.

Which means this isn’t 2008.

At least not yet.

Here’s what’s actually happening underneath.

For years, homeowners were protected by:

👉 Ultra-low mortgage rates
👉 Stimulus-driven savings
👉 Rising home prices

That cushion is fading.

Now replace it with:

👉 Higher mortgage rates
👉 Rising insurance costs
👉 Higher cost of living

And the pressure starts to build.

Slowly at first.

Then all at once in certain pockets.

This isn’t a collapse.

It’s a stress signal.

And smart investors don’t wait for headlines.

They prepare during this phase.

Because this is where the opportunity starts to form:

👉 Distressed sellers
👉 Forced timelines
👉 Mispriced risk

So instead of trying to time a “crash”…

Do this:

👉 Start building relationships with brokers and wholesalers in affected markets
👉 Tighten your underwriting — assume no margin for error
👉 Keep liquidity ready for when deals start coming to you

Because by the time it feels obvious…

The best opportunities are already gone.

04/10/2026

The market keeps rooting for lower rates.

But lower rates aren’t always relief.

Sometimes… they’re a signal something underneath is weakening.

That’s what makes this moment interesting.

In February, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a key measure of inflation, was still up 2.4% year over year in the U.S.

So inflation has cooled.

But it hasn’t disappeared.

At the same time, geopolitical tension is pushing oil higher…

while uncertainty is starting to weigh on growth.

Two forces. Opposite directions.

And the market feels it.

After the Iran shock, traders went from pricing in rate hikes to debating cuts later this year.

That’s not normal.

It means the same event is driving:

Higher oil prices → more inflation
More uncertainty → weaker growth

So the real question isn’t:
“Are rates going down?”

It’s:
What’s weakening enough to force them down?

Because lower rates, by themselves, aren’t always bullish.

If they come from strength, opportunity expands.

If they come from weakness, the game changes.

That’s the difference most people miss.

And that’s where the real signal is.

03/29/2026

The housing market isn’t crashing… it’s freezing.

The pace of U.S. home sales just slowed to levels we haven’t seen since the aftermath of 2008.

Let that sink in.

👉 Existing home sales dropped to a 4.09M annual pace in February, the weakest February since 2009
👉 Mortgage rates around 6% are squeezing affordability
👉 Millions of homeowners are locked into ~3% rates and are simply not moving

So what do you get as a result of all this?

Prices stay high…

But fewer homes actually trade hands.

That’s not a boom.
That’s not a crash.
That’s gridlock.

This market isn’t being driven by fear or greed. It’s being driven by constraints.

People want to move. They just can’t justify the math.

And when movement slows in a system built on transactions, everything downstream starts to feel it.

Real estate doesn’t always break loudly. Sometimes it just… stops moving.

Pay attention to that.

The Das Group

05/16/2026

05/11/2026

05/05/2026

04/28/2026

04/18/2026

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03/29/2026

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