Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The Real Estate Life Cycle

September 30th, 2009

The Real Estate Life Cycle

The Appraisal Institute defines four life cycle stages of a market area:

1. GROWTH. Example: Maple Grove. While growth has slowed some relative to past performance, building permits 2005-2008 have averaged 340 per year.

2. STABILITY. Example: Roseville.

3. DECLINE. Example: Downtown Long Lake. Decline is often caused by an external circumstance. In the case of downtown Long Lake its the rerouting of Highway 12. The lady at the apple stand said her business is way down.

4. REVITILIZATION: Example: St. Louis Park, with new housing and commercial development.

Appraisal school wasn't the first time I encountered this life cycle. I learned it years ago in MBA school in studying product life cycles: the same thing applies to cake mixes.

Do the Appraisal Institute and the marketing gurus understand that this life cycle concept actually came from the Hindus? 10,000 years ago?

In Hinduism, time is not linear: its circular and guided by three main deities: Brahma is the Creator, Vishnu is the Preserver and Shiva is the Destroyer. This pattern works for real estate, cake mixes, relationships, houses, cars, human and animals bodies. I challenge you to name anything that doesn't follow this pattern.

At the Hindu Temple in Maple Grove, opened in 2006, Creation is still taking place. 61,320 hours of labor went into constructing the 21 mini-temples. While at yoga class, its a familiar site to see these skinny little guys fill a gallon jug of water and grab a bag of pre-mix concrete and set to work. And, 2 years later, they have completed an intricately carved 64' tall Divine Gateway tower. Along with the mini temples, wall carvings, and I just noticed a new cow statue.

No comments:

Post a Comment