Data for Commercial Real Estate Stock and Pipeline Analysis: F. W. Dodge and COMPS.COM

Products Real Estate Decision Tools. F. W. Dodge Market Analysis Group, 24 Hartwell Avenue, Lexington MA 02421. Telephone 800-591-4462, Fax: 781-860-6884, URL: www.FWDodge.Com. CompsLink Windows version 2.02. COMPS.COM Inc., 9888 Carroll Centre Road, Suite 100, San Diego CA 92126-4580. Telephone 619-578-3000 or 800-821-1573, Fax: 619-684-3288, URL: www.Comps.com). Introduction The two products reviewed here can be used for estimating the supply of commercial real estate at the preset time, and in the near future. The data available, via these products, also provide a good first estimation of location and attributes of property peer groups; namely, properties that contend to be considered as comparables for a subject property. F. W. Dodge, a subsidiary of McGraw Hill, provides the pipeline data commented on here, and COMPS.COM, a subsidiary of the Co-Star Group, provides the commercial real estate stock data. Real estate market analysts have a host of uses for data of this type. Uses include the estimation of the supply of real estate product at the present time, and extension of that estimation to the near future. Because this data is geographically enabled via the provision of latitude and longitude coordinates, this data can be used to identify where the supply of real estate is, and where it is known to be increasing. In other words, submarket analysis can be performed. This data can also be used to identify the location and attributes of peer group properties; namely, properties that would be considered as comparable. While this data is highly useful to analysts, it should not be considered as a replacement for data required for conventional appraisals since the data does not conform to standards established by organizations such as The Appraisal Institute. F W. Dodge Pipeline Data Pipeline data is part of the F. W. Dodge Market Analysis Group's package known as Real Estate Decision Tools. The pipeline is real estate at various stages of construction from conceptualization to the awarding of a certificate of occupancy. What is in the pipeline can be used as a measure of the prospective increase in the supply of real estate. The analyst must be aware, however, that not all real estate projects are completed. R W. Dodge accommodates this by also including data on abandoned projects. The pipeline data is provided in Microsoft Access database format. Monitoring of five commercial real estate property types, in various stages of planning and construction, is provided for 110 markets. Alteration projects are included, as well as new construction and additions. The data are updated quarterly. The commercial real estate property types included are apartment, hotel, office, retail and warehouse. Dodge Pipeline includes all projects whose hard cost of construction is $1 million or above. The database includes both privately and publicly (i.e., government) owned projects. Exhibit 1 lists the fields available in the database. Dodge Pipeline data is delivered on CD-ROM and contains data for the past eight quarters. Included on the CD-ROM, and part of the Real Estate Decision Tools package, is software that provides SQL-like (structured query language) query ability to search, sort, tabulate, aggregate, export and print information on projects that conform to search criteria. CompsLink Windows from Comps.Com Inc. Comps.Com provides inventory data of existing commercial real estate. COMPS.COM expects to cover more than seventy of the largest urban markets in the United States by the end of 2000. Presently, data is available for about fifty markets. …