Phoenix is an investor favorite for sure. While nationwide roughly 65% of medical office space is user owned, in Phoenix only 30% is user owned. A significant driver of this is how incredibly fast Phoenix is growing.

Based on planned projects, a slow down in starts in the beginning of this year was expected. But for those scheduled starts, even into March and April, projects moved forward with few exceptions. Projects scheduled to open, however, have a different story.

Outpatient Starts rose significantly in 2019. See table below but 30.9 MSF was started in 2019 compared to 23.1 MSF in 2018 (an increase of 34%). Developers also gained a higher share of the starts activity in 2019.

Classic economic theories establish a clear relationship between supply and demand for many goods and services. In real estate circles the theory says that as prices rise, demand (or occupancy) should fall.

Last year 77 medical office projects started that will be over 100,000 square feet when completed. That's quite an uptick over previous years when we averaged less than 50.

So much of the conversation in the industry right now is about placing medical services out into the community to be more convenient and cost effective for patients. But what is that community going to look like in 10 years? 20 years? Flexibility becomes the name of the game.

Let’s take a look at the Jacksonville market. At 7.7 million square feet (MSF), Jacksonville’s MOB market is the 36th largest market in the US based on total SF.

There are currently about 600 medical office projects under way across the country. More than 15 percent of those projects include orthopedics. Why do so many projects include this specialty?

While MOB transaction activity might have cooled somewhat and MOB construction remains steady, deliveries of hospital projects have been on a spike. Based on projects that have either opened or are scheduled to open by the end of the year, we will be adding roughly 35 million square feet to inventory in 2019.