"Real Estate" is the debut album by the American indie rock band Real Estate, released on November 17, 2009, on the Woodsist label. The band was formed by Martin Courtney, Matt Mondanile, and Alex Bleeker, who had known each other since high school in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and had played music together in various configurations. After they graduated from college and returned to Ridgewood in 2008, they decided to form a new band. They were joined by drummer Etienne Pierre Duguay, who had previously collaborated with Mondanile in a band called Predator Vision and had also played with the other members in a backing band for Julian Lynch.
The band's music-making process involved the members sending each other demos and collaborating long-distance. The album's recording took place between January and June 2009 at Yeah Buddy HQ, a studio run by their childhood friend Sarim "Sam" Al-Rawi, located in Glen Rock, New Jersey. Some tracks, like "Suburban Dogs," were recorded at Courtney's mother's house, while "Fake Blues" was recorded at Courtney's apartment.
The album's artwork was designed using a model from Italian architect Paolo Soleri's 1969 book Arcology: The City in the Image of Man, which explores Soleri's vision of densely populated urban environments through the concept of arcology. The cover image depicts Soleri's model for his "Hexahedron City."
Overall, the album captures the band's early sound, combining jangly guitars, mellow rhythms, and reflective lyrics, and it became an important step in defining Real Estate's distinct musical identity within the indie rock scene.
