This is a Moment for Those Who Can Get Weird

[Rob Bergeron]

A few things are happening at the same time right now, and taken together they’re quietly reshaping where opportunity actually lives.

Let’s start with jobs.

The safest work going forward isn’t flashy and it isn’t digital-only. It’s physical infrastructure. Electricians, in particular, are becoming the real bottleneck behind AI, data centers, and energy-heavy projects. Chips and capital are plentiful. Power exists. The constraint is skilled humans who can wire, maintain, and expand these systems.

To put real numbers on it: Nvidia is paying top-tier electricians as much as $495,000 a year on certain hyperscale and AI-adjacent projects. That’s not a typo. That’s demand overwhelming supply. If someone wants insulation from economic whiplash, this is one of the clearest lanes on the board.

That dovetails into something else we’re well positioned for locally.

This is a great time to lean into our strength as a manufacturing and logistics hub. Industrial, flex, light manufacturing, energy-adjacent properties, data centers—these aren’t fringe ideas. They’re simpler to manage, deeply tied to where the economy is heading, and increasingly favored by capital that wants durability over drama.

Which raises an important question more investors should be asking:

What if you sold off a few multifamilies?
What if you packaged some single-family rentals?
What if you rolled that equity into something cleaner, simpler, and more future-facing?

Sometimes the move isn’t squeezing harder. It’s getting into a different swimming pool.

Now contrast that with the broader labor picture.

Unemployment is deteriorating beneath the surface. Job openings are back to recession-type levels. Outside of education and healthcare, hiring is shrinking fast. Public administration, leisure and hospitality, retail, and professional services are all shedding roles. That matters because those sectors support consumer spending, household formation, and buyer confidence.

Add student loans to the mix.

Delinquencies are accelerating now that missed payments are fully reporting. Millions of borrowers are sliding past due, and a growing share are entering serious delinquency. That hits credit scores directly, which quietly knocks a lot of would-be buyers out of the game. Less leverage. Fewer approvals. More hesitation.

Meanwhile, real estate stress is spreading.

Commercial office is already in rough shape, with delinquency rates pushing beyond post-2008 levels. Multifamily isn’t insulated either. Refinancing pressure is real (I've got a guy, hit me up!), expenses are sticky, and deals that penciled two years ago often don’t today. The idea that multifamily is automatically safe is getting tested hard.

On the policy side, all of this feeds the same direction.

With unemployment weakening and balance sheets under strain, pressure is building for lower rates. Add in political pressure to push rates materially down, and it’s hard to argue the long-term direction isn’t easier money—even if the path there is uneven.

Here’s the important part.

This is not a market for one-trick ponies.

The world rewards people who are flexible.

If you have systems, plans, some liquidity, or the ability to navigate creative terms, this is your moment. A lot of people are sidelined not because they don’t see opportunity, but because their credit, cash flow, or confidence is slipping in real time.

That leaves a smaller field.

And smaller fields are where decisive operators rule the roost.

Now is the time to get weird.
Change asset classes.
Restructure portfolios.
Build for where things are going, not where they’ve been.

Inventory is sitting right around 3,013 active listings—basically hanging out at that number. Multifamily inventory has been hovering in the mid-to-high 90s for a while now. Stagnant markets often create the best openings for people who can move decisively. Is that you?