For those of you who celebrate, I wish you a Merry Christmas.

This year has been a hectic year for many; certainly for those of us in real estate. I've heard a lot of people tell me that they've "never worked so hard only to feel like they have accomplished so little."

Looking back at what I wrote on the first day of this year, I was wrong about many of my 2023 predictions. I thought the interest rate hikes would be over by the first quarter of the year and that the spring would bring greater optimism for new development projects.

This was partially true -- we did see some buoyancy around spring -- but then further increases over the summer really quashed the pre-construction condominium market and overall developer sentiment for basically the rest of the year.

I also thought that we would see distress within the industry in the first half of the year. That didn't quite play out, as far as I can tell, and I now think that 2024 will be the year for this.

All of this said, I do feel that 2023 was a highly productive year. I'm proud of what I accomplished both personally and professionally. And this holiday season, I'm looking forward to slowing things down, spending time with family and friends, and catching up on some life management.

Hopefully you are all able to do something similar. Merry Christmas, everyone.

The frenetic run-up to Christmas has come to an end, and I'm looking forward to relaxing and taking it easy with family and friends. I hope that all of you are able to do the same, however you spend the holidays. This is the one time of the year when the email firehose completely shuts off and it's a lot easier to do exactly that. I think that's important for all of us.

This past year I found it particularly difficult to disconnect. And 2020 is on deck to be an even bigger year. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I am, however, going to take this time to slow down, read, write, travel, and likely drink a bunch of wine. As always, you'll find me here on the blog every morning. Merry Christmas, everyone.

P.S. The Toronto Raptors are hosting their first ever Christmas Day game.

At this time of year, I am always amazed by the number of mass emails that I receive from unknown people and companies. They have my email address, clearly, and yet I only receive one email a year from them – a happy holidays email. I am not opposed to holiday cheer. I love Christmas. But if you’re looking to build any sort of meaningful rapport with an audience, my sense is that you ought to send more than one email a year.

In other news, the Economist published an article this past week talking about how Toronto is attracting disaffected (Indian) tech workers from the US and, more particularly, Silicon Valley. It is largely a story of immigration and diversity. But at the end of it, the Economist also reports that some people are now calling Toronto, Maple Valley. Toronto immediately reacted to this moniker – negatively.

Nobody refers to Toronto as Maple Valley. And these sorts of names are stupid. In the 1990s, the Flatiron District in Manhattan started being called Silicon Alley (at least by some). That name was also stupid. New York is New York. And Toronto is Toronto. If you’re going to assign a nickname, it should not be derivative. And in the case of Toronto, you probably also want to avoid kitschy Canadian stereotypes.