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 […]

The Wall Street Journals Jonathan Karp provides a fascinating expose’, entitled HARD MONEY: Real-Estate Financier’s Death Hints At Trouble for Lenders, detailing a griping personal tale of Scott Coles and his company Mortgages, Ltd., that outlines a bizarre set of facts even greater than what fiction could believably spin.  
Unfortunately this story is true, and arguably representative […]

Here we go again. Recently, the headlines have been dominated by the global banks, like Bear Sterns, and their massive missteps and huge losses.
For instance, this just in from CitiGroup: $8.9 billion of write-downs in the second quarter, nearly $15 billion of losses in the last two quarters of 2008, and more than $46 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Here is an absolutely fascinating analysis of the commercial real estate market as posted in Seeking Alfpha, entitled Real Estate: Modern Fundaments.
A Historical Analogy: As we think about the dominance of the dinosaur and the 40 plus million years they roamed the earth, there is a clear sense of power. It is all the more powerful […]

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 […]

As reported in the Baltimore Business Journal, nearly 450 new shopping centers were added this year, through May 10, 2008, according to the latest industry report by from the International Council of Shopping Centers.
Here are some interesting supplemental data (and factoids) regarding the commercial real estate sector (and the retail arena, specifically): 

The Big Picture: In 2008 there […]