As we have said on many occassions, commercial real estate is a lagging economic indicator. We have seen the strain in other areas like residential property (sub-prime crisis), rising food and gas prices, and a tightening of consumer finance options (Home Equity Lines Of Credit (HELOC), Credit Card Defaults, etc.).
Now the tail is finally starting to wag the […]

Here’s the potential $2.8 trillion dollar question. In a revealing article in the New York Times, they investigate the question of how bad could things get? Since World War II, there have been 18 banking crises in industrial countries. The worst five were caused by changing lending standards or real estate bubbles (often both) and […]

As just reported in InmanNews, shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hit 17-year lows today (July 10, 2008) as investors’ fears about the companies’ ability to raise additional capital fueled speculation of the possibility of a government bailout.
Along these lines, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) has issued a statement on the […]

John Caulfield in BuilderOnline, attempts to predict the trending in the Non-Residential market (and read the tea leaves), as it is suggested that the economic downturn seems to be taking its toll on the non-residential sector, which despite a strong year in 2007 and gains as recently as last month, could be faltering a bit. 
Last week, McGraw-Hill […]

As reported by Inman News, the current housing slump is far from over and is shaping up to be the worst in 50 years, according to an annual report on the state of the nation’s housing markets from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

Drastic production cuts and deep price discounts in 2005-2007 helped […]

The point is often is often raised that there is some value in eliminating title insurance. Kimberly Palmer, in her article in U.S. New and World Report today, makes clear that the answer to whether to opt out of title insurance is: DO NOT!
When attorney Mark Rutzick sold his home in Fairfax, Va., and bought a new […]

As reported by Wall Street Journal today, federal regulators warned that banking-industry turmoil would continue as financial institutions come to terms with piles of bad loans they made to finance the construction of homes and condominiums.
A New Phenomena: Until now, most of the damage to banks from the housing crisis has come from homeowners defaulting […]

So you think title is typically not an integral part of your deal. Think again!
Here is a title story, of epic proportions, told to us InmanNews. Remember this scenario the next time someone poo-poos the importance of securing title, prior to a development deal.
Some Hollywood moguls who were ready to build a $282 million movie production […]

Just to put a point to the notion that the Commercial Real Estate (CRE) market could actually become a lot worse, Seeking Alpha just posted a most interesting thumbnail analysis as to how we could see a huge downturn, with respect to the overall value in the CRE arena in the very near future.
The sale […]

Amongst all the clutter (and there is surely tons of clutter in the news these days), here is some truly worthwhile reading regarding: “Why a Housing Bailout Won’t Help,” from the Wall Street Journal’s Holman Jenkins, Jr.
Most of us have read the anti-bailout arguments. What makes this piece so very interesting is Holman’s analysis of […]