We normally would NOT reproduce language from a prospectus filed with the SEC. HOWEVER the following language is culled directly from a very interesting and timely filing made by First Mariner Bank on Tuesday (2.9.10).
It is so related to our recent posts – regarding the collapse of the commercial real estate market and the heavy-weight […]

Here’s what MarylandCommercialTitle.com has been saying for more than two (2) years now. Could this truly be our reality?
Over the next several years, a watchdog group concludes that failed commercial real estate loans could litter American cities with empty stores and office complexes, cause hundreds of bank failures and weaken the economy.
Banks face up to […]

It is September 2009 and here are the headlines: Lack of Opportunity to Purchase Quality Assets Surprises Investors ….. Commercial Real Estate Sectors Expected to Deteriorate Through 2010. Who would have guessed that a full year post the Lehman collapse, we’d be here.

Despite a still-struggling U.S. economy, ill credit markets, deteriorating property fundamentals, and precipitous […]

YEP … It is official: Commercial real estate (CRE) markets are now down into a severe and historic recessionary decline. Earlier this week the MIT Center for Real Estate released their Q2 2009 read on the nation’s commercial property market showing a stunning:

All commercial structures (as an aggregate PRICE): Down 32.07% year-over-year decline !!!
Decline of 36.33% in DEMAND.
Worse […]

A heads up for real estate professionals: H.R. 2454, the cap and trade legislation approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on June 26, 2009, if passed into law, would have a profound effect on the real estate sector.According to an excellent article by Leanne Tobia of Reuters, entitled, How the Cap-And-Trade Bill Could Transform […]

Today’s release of the S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices for May 2009 showed the first month-to-month gain in 34 months (almost 3 years!).
Clearly this is a notable development but it’s important to put today’s results in perspective before getting to confident that even the initial leg of the declining trend has ceased.

First, it’s important to recognize […]

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General Growth Properties, Inc. (GGP) has filed for Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy protection to reorganize, making it the largest real estate bankruptcy in U.S. history.
One April 6, 2009 (just 10 days ago), we highlighted the fate of GGP. We posed the question: How close does, […]

In todays WSJ there is a rather telling article entiled, Real-Estate Industry Pushes Fed to Lengthen TALF Terms, which may be of interest to our readers.

Acording to the piece, the real-estate industry is lobbying the Federal Reserve to modify a bailout program that many believe may avert a wave of commercial-property defaults.
Real-estate owners and investors […]

How close does, or will, commercial real estate mirror the banking and financial industry?
More specifically, we — meaning they, the powers that be within the Federal Government – saved Citi and AIG because they were purportedly too big to fail. So what do we do with commercial real estate firms like General Growth Properties (GGP’s).
Rarely a day goes by […]

The Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Index released on Monday, March 23, 2009 showed its largest one-month drop in history

Prices down 19.1 percent over the previous 12 Months, and

21 percent below its October 2007 peak.

The Moody’s/REAL National All Property Type Aggregate Index from Real Estate Analytics LLC (REAL), measures 151.58 for January 2009, a monthly […]