HEDGE FUND MAKES “GENERATIONAL BET” ON HOUSING

Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund managing more than $7 billion in assets, has increased its ownership share in Howard Hughes Corp. to almost 25 percent over the past seven months, according to public filings reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The Hughes company is beginning construction on 1,475 apartment units in Hawaii, Las Vegas, Maryland, and Texas.
The developments are located in cities that have seen migrants from colder northern states resettling in 2019 in locales with milder weather, lower home prices, and lower taxes.
The migration was underway before the pandemic but fear of the virus in close-packed urban areas and the ability to work from home sped up the trend, the Journal noted.
Pershing’s investment in Hughes “is not a Wall Street bet,” Pershing founder William Ackman told the Journal. “It’s a generational bet.”
Ackman also is chair of Howard Hughes’ board.
TREND FORECAST: Yes, there will be rebounding economic and real estate growth in these areas as millions leave densely populated, high-tax, high-crime cities.