The U.S. office vacancy rate was 12.3% at the end of the third quarter, about where it was at its peak during the global financial crisis. The rates in some major metro areas—including New York, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco—are at the highest levels recorded.

The major banks are expected to post some $28 billion in profits in the fourth quarter, down 15% from a year earlier.

Developers of the long-delayed Fontainebleau resort and casino have obtained $2.2 billion in construction financing. The 67-story resort is under construction on 25 acres on the northern end of the Strip near the Las Vegas Convention Center. Plans include 3,700 hotel rooms, 550,000 square feet of convention and meeting space, and several gambling, dining and retail venues.

IPOs in the U.S., excluding offerings by special-purpose acquisition companies, raised $8.6 billion in 2022, far below the roughly $56 billion annual average over the past decade.

Shares in office real-estate investment trusts are down 45%, including dividends, since February 2020. That’s compared with about a 5% decline for the equity real-estate investment trust index.

Nearly half a million new apartment units—the most of any year since 1986—are expected to complete construction by the end of 2023. That will come after more than 400,000 units were completed during 2022.

University of California will invest $4 Billion in Blackstone’s BREIT real-estate vehicle. UC Investments will put its BREIT shares into a strategic venture to which Blackstone will contribute $1 billion of BREIT shares that it already owns. The venture will have an 11.25% hurdle rate, meaning that if BREIT’s net annualized return exceeds that rate, Blackstone will get an extra 5% incentive fee. If the vehicle’s performance falls short of the 11.25% rate, Blackstone will make up the difference.

Companies in the S&P 500 allocated an estimated $561 billion toward dividends in 2022, up from $511.2 billion in 2021 and the highest amount on record.

Bitcoin is on track for its worst year since 2018—the last so-called crypto winter when prices tanked—having shed nearly two-thirds of its value.

Nearly 80 million American employees are still working from home at least one day a week, saving 200 million hours and 6 billion miles commuting to offices per week, which they value at roughly an 8% pay increase.