Sam Zell Quotations

We made fortunes off of leverage (before going public), and you're not going to make fortunes in the public market off of leverage.

You have developers who weren't rich to begin with, who went public, and then figured out they couldn't get rich.

There is oversupply at the moment. But we have lowered supply, and over the next 18 months the situation will get better.

The residential market is going to level out for a while after years of huge gains, but that does not mean there is a bubble.

That's why we're seeing a lot of going-private transactions.

There will be a softer real estate market in some areas as a result, but I keep telling people there is no bubble.

Creating these companies and operating under the public scrutiny has changed the real estate business pretty dramatically.

Just by being private, the culture will change. We won't be forced to make decisions that are 90 days in relevance.

When all is said and done, what must be remembered is a newspaper is a business. It used to be a fabulous business that made extraordinary margins. It's now a very good business with appropriate margins.

When you got a demand issue it's hard to imagine the stock market at an all-time high.

Everyone likes pussy. It's un-American not to like pussy.

I can’t imagine anything being more disastrous to our country than if the dollar lost its reserve-currency status.

I've always been called a professional opportunist, and in the future I'm open to anything. We've spent a lot of time offshore, looking at opportunities in real estate outside the United States.

My single biggest financial concern is the loss of the dollar as the reserve currency. I can't imagine anything more disastrous to our country. . .you're already seeing things in the markets that are suggesting that confidence in the dollar is waning. . .I think you could see a 25% reduction in the standard of living in this country if the U.S. dollar was no longer the world's reserve currency. That's how valuable it is.

In my case, if one out of five opportunities is interesting enough to work on, maybe one in five of those ends up being worth doing. That might be a function of risk. That might be a function of price. There are all the variables. But you have to be constantly sorting and choosing and prioritizing.

The single biggest issue that I'm very sensitive to is inflation. I'm very concerned that this extended period where the interest rates were quite low and stimulated a lot of activity could breed inflation and create a problem for us.

If you could find a major city that actually had a functioning, good public school system, you should buy all the real estate.

The reality is that I need to be challenged and interested, as long as the risk and reward is in line.

Interest rates are going to go up because employment is going to go up. If employment goes up, then our apartments get filled. And if employment goes up, our office buildings get filled. The reality is that increased economic activity combined with increased interest rates is basically bullish for real estate.

The question is not do you take money out of stocks and put it into real estate, or the reverse. There's so much money out there looking for a home. I don't think it's either/or.