Onward, a Fundrise Production Fundrise

People outside of the real estate investment industry may be unaware, but the market is currently navigating a period of turbulence comparable to what it experienced during the 2008 financial crisis, with cap rates and pricing down as much as 50%. In this episode of Onward, co-hosts Ben and Cardiff look at some behind-the-scenes market data that Ben has been analyzing, thanks to his on-the-ground insights through managing the Fundrise portfolio. Of particular concern has been the startling unevenness in the market, with investment property values severely misaligned with the values attached to properties purchased and sold by individual homebuyers. In order to understand these differences, our hosts point out, we need to look at more than just completed transactions and sales prices — we also need to consider the numbers behind offers that are not being completed, to see why sellers are not willing to accept the low prices that current buyers are willing to pay. And in order to see those kinds of bids, you need to be directly involved in the market’s dynamics — a perspective Ben can fortunately share, with a helpful glimpse into a couple properties in Fundrise’s portfolio.

As always, great change opens the door to great opportunity — but what else does the current state of investment real estate mean for the economy, writ large? Will interest rates continue at their present level, despite the rupture in the bond markets and continued challenges for banks? When and how will the impact on the real estate industry make its way to other sectors? Why exactly is the market broken — and what will it take to fix it? 

To read more background information on Ben and Cardiff’s conversation in this episode, visit https://fundrise.com/education/onward-episode-30. 

Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.

Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).

Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.

About Fundrise
With over 2 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.  

Please see fundrise.com/oc for more information on all of the Fundrise-sponsored investment funds and products, including each fund’s offering document(s).

Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios, including the ones mentioned in today’s episode? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets. 

Rick Caruso’s real estate projects have defined how a generation of LA residents live in and experience the city. When you truly collaborate with communities, Rick explains, you get more than reliable financial success — you get momentum behind your project, you get political capital, and you get the satisfaction that comes from knowing people appreciate and enjoy the spaces you’ve contributed to the city. In this latest episode of Onward, Rick joins Fundrise CEO Ben Miller for a behind the scenes conversation on the current status of the real estate industry, and how his business principles have helped him navigate multiple past industry downturns, such as the S&L and 2008 crises. Beyond that, Ben and Rick’s discussion touches on a variety of veteran real estate insights, such as why Rick is concerned that LA’s current politics could block opportunities for growth; the critical considerations that go into managing banking relationships for real estate developers; and why the 2028 Olympic Games, scheduled to take place in Los Angeles, could supercharge yet another real estate renaissance for the city. All this and more, on the latest episode of Onward.

Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.

Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).

Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.

About Fundrise
With over 2 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.  

Please see www.fundrise.com/oc for more information on all of the Fundrise-sponsored investment funds and products, including each fund’s offering document(s).

Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets. 

As our host, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller, observes in this latest episode of Onward, the amount of hype surrounding AI has become extraordinary… to the point that it’s become difficult for many people to distinguish the reality of its potential from vaporware. Luckily, coinciding with the Fundrise Innovation Fund’s investment in Theory Ventures, we have the opportunity to chat with Tomasz Tunguz, Theory Ventures General Partner, whose experience provides a critical perspective in analyzing how new technological paradigms become drivers for change, productivity, profitability, and growth. Ben and Tomasz’s conversation touches on structured vs. unstructured data, how technology development moves between infrastructure and software, and why tech incumbents have such a head start with AI. This episode is a key introduction to the kinds of systems theory governing the thinking in AI today and the economic analysis that will guide how it eventually winds up in everyday application, in all consumers’ lives. No matter how tremendous the hype behind AI becomes, this conversation makes one thing clear: we’re witnessing the beginning of a new era for tech.

Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.

Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).

Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.

About Fundrise
With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.  

Please see fundrise.com/oc for more information on all of the Fundrise-sponsored investment funds and products, including each fund’s offering document(s).

Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets. 

As artificial intelligence has dominated headlines over the past year, it’s become increasingly critical for everybody to understand AI, due to its likelihood to impact each and every one of us. In this latest episode of Onward, join Fundrise CEO Ben Miller and co-host Cardiff Garcia for a conversation that aims to reveal some of the big picture ideas driving AI’s current growth, along with the potential ramifications of those changes — and why it really is worth getting excited over. In terms of impact, Ben and Cardiff explain, we’re beginning to be able to rely on AI to perform tasks as vital and varied as weather forecasting or performing medical diagnoses. The financial outcomes of these leaps are staggering, according to recent reports and projections by some of the world’s largest accounting and financial firms, some expecting annual GDP growth to triple, directly attributed to AI’s ability to automate 40-70% of all workers’ activities. So where does that leave the labor market, people’s day-to-day lives, and investment opportunities in infrastructures that will help govern a whole new technological paradigm? Join Ben and Cardiff in this latest episode of Onward to find out.

Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.

Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).

Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.

About Fundrise
With over 2 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.  

Please see fundrise.com/oc for more information on all of the Fundrise-sponsored investment funds and products, including each fund’s offering document(s).

Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets. 

In our latest episode of Onward, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller is joined by David Carmen, founder of the Carmen Group and one of the top lobbyists in the nation. He has worked on some of the most important issues of the past nearly half century — from 9/11 to Softbank’s $22B acquisition of Sprint. With increasing polarization and political dysfunction, many may feel that our democracy is at risk. Most people don’t know why, let alone how we might fix it. With nearly 40 years as a Washington-DC-insider, David Carmen has real knowledge and concrete suggestions that he argues could bring us into a new era of effective government.

Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.

Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).

Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.

About Fundrise
With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.  

Please see fundrise.com/oc for more information on all of the Fundrise-sponsored investment funds and products, including each fund’s offering document(s).

Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets. 

In this latest episode of Onward, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller and co-host Cardiff Garcia give us a tour of the economic landscape that was once the status quo: a world where local lending institutions called S&Ls — or thrifts — were the primary way individuals saved for and financed home ownership. However, due to a confluence of events, including rocketing inflation similar to the past 18 months’, S&Ls found themselves in a period of acute insolvency. As Ben and Cardiff explain, a series of regulatory blunders, bailouts, and bad actors then caused the crisis to deepen, eventually leading to a total shutdown of the S&L framework, forcing our financial system to perform a hard reset. In the process, the long financial era that had begun in the 1930s came to an end, and our modern era began. Out of the Savings and Loan Crisis arose some of the most basic pillars of today’s economic system, fundamental to how we now think about and handle money, including national banks, banks as mortgage providers, public REITs, and the entire industry of private equity real estate. Ultimately, the Savings and Loan Crisis was so instrumental to shaping our monetary systems today that to truly understand modern finance, we need to look back at that explosive event that set the trajectory our economy still follows.

Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com.

Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).

Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.

About Fundrise
With over 1 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button.  

Please see fundrise.com/oc for more information on all of the Fundrise-sponsored investment funds and products, including each fund’s offering document(s).

Want to see the specific properties that make up and power Fundrise portfolios? Check out our active and past projects at www.fundrise.com/assets.