Tuesday, June 23, 2026

On Tap Today

  • Pay to play house: A new study shows that regulations account for $131,734 of new home prices, up 40% in five years.

  • Watt's next: Digital infrastructure investors are buying power developers to secure electricity and speed deployment.

  • Heavy ground: A luxury tower on the Surfside collapse site has not sold a single unit.

  • AI in real estate capital raising: A live workshop for capital markets professionals on how AI can transform your fundraising. Sign up

Essential Metrics

Daily Market Snapshot
S&P 500 7,472.79 −27.79 (−0.37%)
FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs 846.44 +10.43 (+1.25%)
10-Year Treasury 4.50% +4 bps
SOFR 3.62% −1 bp
Data as of market close June 22, 2026. SOFR reflects the prior business day's published print.
Returning from the long Juneteenth weekend, megacap tech dragged the S&P 500 down 0.37% to 7,472.79, yet REITs broke from their recent underperformance as FNER climbed 1.25% on a rotation toward rate-sensitive names. That relative strength offers little comfort on financing, as the 10-year backed up four basis points to 4.50%, a two-week high that re-tightens the fixed-rate take-out math and cap-rate pressure Thursday's dip had briefly eased. The climb tracks a firmer hike path under the Warsh Fed, with markets now pricing a year-end increase. SOFR slipped a basis point to 3.62%, leaving floating-rate carry essentially flat ahead of Thursday's PCE print.

Editor’s Pick

Study: The Hidden Tax Adding $131,734 to New Home Prices

The cost of building a new home has many visible culprits: land, labor, materials, interest rates, and the long shadow of inflation. But a new NAHB study puts a hard number on one of the least visible forces driving up prices. Regulations imposed at every level of government now account for $131,734 of the final price of a new single-family home built for sale.

That burden is not concentrated in one place. Some of it shows up before construction even begins, through the higher cost of finished lots. More arrives during the building process, through code compliance, permitting, fees, design review, delays, and documentation. Building code changes alone now represent one of the largest regulatory cost drivers, adding more than $40,000 per home over the past decade.

The timing matters because cities and states are under growing pressure to make housing more affordable. The study suggests that regulatory reform is not just a philosophical argument about red tape. It is a measurable housing cost issue, with implications for supply, affordability, and how quickly new homes can come to market.

Read More
Fast Take

Power Acquisitions Surge as Data Center Developers Bypass Grid Delays

Data center investors are acquiring power developers at scale. Alphabet bought clean energy developer Intersect for $4.75 billion. Blackstone's QTS announced a $10 billion data center campus in Ohio that requires integrated power infrastructure. Microsoft, Google, and other hyperscalers are forming partnerships with nuclear companies. The trend reflects a fundamental shift in how the industry thinks about bottlenecks. Real estate is no longer the constraint. Power is.
The problem is what industry insiders call "speed to power." Developers building data centers operate on 18-24 month timelines. Utilities operate on 30-40 year asset timelines. The mismatch creates delays that push back revenue. Intersect CEO Sheldon Kimber, whose company Google acquired, stated directly: "Modern energy infrastructure now sits at the center of American competitiveness in AI. The business model for electricity has trended towards a 'bring your own generation' framework." In other words, if you're building a data center, you can't count on the grid to power it. You have to develop your own generation.
That realization is driving vertical integration. Tech companies are no longer just leasing space from data center operators. They're acquiring the companies that can develop power infrastructure alongside facilities. Alphabet's acquisition of Intersect wasn't about buying a real estate company. It was about controlling the energy supply chain. Strategic investors like NVIDIA and Dell are appearing in multiple data center funding rounds not to diversify their bets but to shape standards and supply chains. The data center market's clearest signal in 2026 is that power and cooling infrastructure represents a growing share of capital allocation despite being a smaller percentage of total deal value. Capital is consolidating around platform companies that can control capacity while innovation is fragmenting around bottlenecks.
Nuclear power is emerging as the solution hyperscalers are betting on. Long-term, reliable, carbon-free generation solves the "speed to power" problem if hyperscalers can accelerate licensing and deployment timelines. Google, Microsoft, and others are forming partnerships to develop new nuclear technology and restart retired plants. This represents a bet that the energy bottleneck is solvable through technology and capital, not regulatory change. If that bet works, data centers become less dependent on utility cooperation and local grid capacity. If it doesn't, developers will continue hitting delays and cost overruns that squeeze returns.
 
Fast Take

Luxury Condo Project on Surfside Collapse Site Fails to Attract Buyers

Damac Properties, a Dubai-based developer, paid $120 million in 2021 for the 1.8-acre site where Champlain Towers South collapsed, killing 98 people. The firm hired Zaha Hadid Architects to design a luxury tower with units starting at $15 million. A year and a half after launching sales, not a single unit has sold. Damac paused construction in February, citing difficulties securing insurance.
The firm has made inquiries about selling the site and is now seeking a partner to manage day-to-day development, according to people familiar with the matter. Damac set prices at $5,000 per square foot with an average unit cost of $35 million, above the neighborhood average of $4,466 per square foot. The developer also failed to reach agreement with victims' families on incorporating a memorial into the project. Insurance brokers said the construction pause likely reflects Damac's inexperience in South Florida and lack of a local partner.
Damac Chairman Hussain Sajwani viewed the site as a rare opportunity to enter the U.S. market at a favorable price. The site sits in Surfside, where the top 5% of condo sales reached $31 million or more in the first quarter. Fort Partners, a nearby developer, reported selling more than $2 billion in residential units in three months at its Four Seasons Surfside project.
The collapse marked its fifth anniversary this week and remains one of the deadliest structural failures in U.S. history. Damac was the only bidder for the site after a state court ordered its sale to fund a $1 billion settlement for victims' families. Former Surfside Commissioner Marianne Meischeid said the developer's handling of memorial discussions with families deepened local resistance to the project.

Overheard

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