McCarthy is making sense of New York's place in the world.

The health of the commercial real estate industry, like so many other sectors, relies on its relationship with broader economic trends.

Office buildings fill and rents rise when there is job growth and building values skyrocket when interest rates sink, are just a few of the many simplistic catchalls that express the fundamental dynamics between real estate and the economy.

Despite the important role of economic analysis in uncovering and forecasting trends for commercial real estate, many in the industry admit that it used to be the purvey of armchair economists, brokers or market analysts who would moonlight their expertise for interpreting economic data and the relationship it had on their local market.

Yet, as part of a trend of sophistication and specialization in the real estate services industry along with the increasingly complex analyses that corporate tenants and real estate investors demand, real estate firms have begun turning to trained economists to lend economic insight to their clients' real estate strategies and transactions.

Cushman & Wakefield did just that with an announcement in October that economist Kenneth McCarthy would be joining the firm as managing director of its New York Metropolitan Area Research Team. Although it will be McCarthy's first job in real estate, he has long been involved in studies that have examined various economic impacts on the sector.

Brokers will turn to him to help highlight trends that can inform their clients' real estate decision making. For instance, a tenant may decide to take a lease larger than their immediate space requirement if economic trends reveal that their business may soon grow and office rents will continue to increase markedly. In that case, taking more space than they need but at lower rents than they would have to pay later could save significant sums of money.

McCarthy's expertise will also be of use to investment sales brokers because building values often rely on a diverse set of trends, both macro and microeconomic. High interest rates can dampen pricing just as a building's value may jump if the economy is doing well and sparks a greater level of demand among certain large space-using industries in the city. With this knowledge, a broker may advise a client to sell a property because prices are going to recede or buy a building even if it appears to be overpriced because values are going to grow.

While these trends may be easy to spot once they are already at play, it often takes an expert like McCarthy to pinpoint them as they are emerging and the opportunities they afford tenants and investors are still available.

Sometimes, understanding even major trends that have gripped whole markets for months can benefit from the insightful articulation of an expert like McCarthy. Although many credit the tremendous rise of New York City's office market to its emergence as a global city, McCarthy points out the tremendous profits that corporate America has reaped in recent years, a trend that has been highlighted this year by the record breaking bonuses at Goldman Sachs and other financial firms.

"Corporate profits are what have prompted all the merger and acquisition activity that has gone on across many industries, including the REIT industry," McCarthy said.

"These corporations have a lot of money to spend and they're able to spend it on more expensive office space. That's what has been at the heart of New York's success over the past few years."