A ton of money sits on the sidelines looking to invest in real estate—is it $50 billion, $70 billion, $100 billion—who really knows? But by all accounts there continues to be plenty of capital that seems priced out of the top markets, remains skittish about everywhere else, or both.

In the real estate world, 2014 will be more of the same. And so you want something more exciting and different? Look it could be a lot worse…

The chamber of commerce spirit can be counted on to get the provincial juices flowing—where does my city (metro, town) fit in the pecking order of investment choice? Locals look at the year-end surveys to see where their market ranks. And darn if it looks pretty much the same every year. One way or another the vast amount of capital flows head into the familiar 24-hour cities, which I identified nearly 20 years ago in Emerging Trends. The order may change from year to year, but institutional capital wants to be in New York, Washington, DC and San Francisco first and foremost. And Los Angeles, Boston, and Seattle will always be perennial favorites too. These are the places where the nation's economic engines concentrate and most commerce gets done. It is where tenant demand is strongest, driving NOI growth and real estate values. In downturns, these markets tend to hold value better and recover more quickly. That's been true again in the most recent cycle, and these places are where the smart money invests to buy and own. They are the real estate blue chips.

A year ago we were saying pricing in the nation's leading markets looks mighty rich and asking whether an investor could feel comfortable buying existing assets with the risk of rising interest rates. Well, today we are contemplating the very same question as more international money looks to park itself in our 24-hour cities, prices have edged even higher and the economy has perked up to the point where the Fed may be more inclined to start adjusting up rates in the direction of more normalized levels. At the same time, comfort with secondary and tertiary markets has only marginally improved—continuing lackluster tenant demand does not justify an enhanced outlook and the potential for higher interest rates poses a greater threat for the prospects of commodity properties.

Fifteen years ago Gwinnett County northeast of Atlanta was one the country's fastest growing places—a center of ravenous suburban expansion—widening boulevards and parkways, strip shopping centers laced along gasoline alleys, disconnected office parks, residential subdivisions off dead-end cul de sacs, and swaths of blacktopped parking spaces. Local officials blocked extending the Atlanta MARTA subway system into the county, ensuring car dependence while consciously setting up transit barriers from poor sections of the metropolitan area to the south.

Property values continue to escalate wildly in the global gateways as the wealthy and ultra-wealthy look to park money in the world's perceived safest and most stable places—on the top tier that means London and New York, but the effect in the U.S. extends from San Francisco and districts in Los Angeles to the Miami waterfront.

The government shutdown is a sure fire way to reduce government spending, while temporarily cutting the pay checks for millions of Americans… Obama Care is designed to reduce the amount we pay for health care impacting a huge profit-center industry that has been milking businesses and individuals for years with the highest costs in the world. Time will tell if the new health care plan will work… One way or another the federal government will temper its spending when the political parties work out some deal—actually shrinking spending is not in the cards… States and local governments, meanwhile, curtail services and eliminate what have been good paying jobs with generous benefits... And those public pensions are the next in the cross hairs as we have been pointing out.

It was easily missed in President Obama's speech on the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King's march on Washington DC. It was a short passage on the challenges facing the country and the impediments to realizing Dr. King's dream—The President said:“We shouldn't fool ourselves. The task will not be easy. Since 1963 the economy's changed.“The twin forces of technology and global competition have subtracted those jobs that once provided a foothold into the middle class, reduced the bargaining power of American workers.”