Editor’s Letter: Sunny forecast for HRE

Mur01-13Industry experts predict good things for 2015 and beyond

Dear Reader:

Recently, I have become infatuated with “word clouds” – images composed of words, in which the size of each word indicates its frequency or importance. Word clouds are a brilliant way to instantly and visually convey the essence of a particular piece of writing. And anyone with a modicum of skill can cut and paste blocks of copy into one of the many online apps to create one.

The word cloud on the cover of this publication reveals the 50 words most often mentioned by Healthcare Real Estate Insights™ Editorial Advisory Board members when we recently asked them to discuss and predict what is in store for the healthcare real estate (HRE) sector for the rest of 2015 and beyond. We transcribed that discussion, pasted the transcript into an online word cloud generator and – voilà! – an instant graphic representation of the biggest issues and trends in HRE.

As you can see, aside from “healthcare” and “2015,” the most prominent words and phrases were interest rates, capital, development, REITs (real estate investment trusts), cap rates and deals. That all sounds about right, as interest rates continue to be closely watched, and all the other words and phrases are perennially hot topics in the HRE space. (For a deeper dive into the words behind the cloud, please see “Demand to continue well into 2015” on Page 4 of this edition.)

The word cloud paints a generally sunny picture of the year ahead. But we didn’t stop with one group’s perspective. In this special trends-themed edition of HREI™, we explore several additional angles: the perspective of a leading economist, the thoughts of one of the HRE industry’s best-known figures, medical office building (MOB) sales data and what it is telling us, and the top trends we gleaned from recent conferences.

Of course, no one knows what the future really holds. But the underlying theme of all these different sources seems to be that 2013 and 2014 were excellent years for the HRE business, 2015 will be similar, and the longer term future looks bright as well.

On another note, we are pleased to present this, our eighth annual HREI™ Resource Guide™. After seven years of producing the guide as a separate publication, we are now producing it as a Special Edition of the monthly HREI™ magazine, with a more consistent look. We will still publish 12 monthly editions of HREI™, but now the HREI™ Resource Guide™ will be the 13th edition each year – at no extra cost to our subscribers.

We’d also like to thank the many individuals and organizations that make this guide possible through their display advertisements and paid listings. We hope you enjoy reading this trends-themed edition as much as we did putting it together.

Murray W. Wolf, Publisher

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