Are things getting better? The news certainly is not good, but the question is whether there is lemonade amongst the lemons …
 U.S. foreclosure activity in July 2008 increased 8 percent from the previous month and 55 percent from a year earlier, July 2007, according to the RealtyTrac Foreclosure Market Report released today.

Bank Repossessions (REOs) […]

Could things get worse? Well, according to a piece by Les Christie of CNNMoney.com, the answer may be yes.
Turns out, prime mortgages are starting to default at disturbingly high rates - a development that threatens to slow any potential housing recovery.
Here is yet another strong and very expert view who says — you bet: […]

Today, Bloomberg News reported that 100 of the world’s biggest banks losses from the U.S. sub-prime crisis, and the ensuing credit crunch, crossed the $500 billion mark as write-downs spread to more asset types.
Further exacerbating the situation we now see that auction-rate securities have begun adding to the losses as regulators and prosecutors force banks […]

Much of the news over the summer of 2008 has been negative, somewhat depressing, and duplicative. Unfortunately, our post today is much of the same, but there comes a time when there is just no way to avoid the news. The truth is that we need to know how to set our course in the days to come.
As reported […]

Is there finally some positive real estate news to report on? Looks like it. As we drill down on the raw data, and move away from a macro view, there just maybe activity that is starting to turn positive.

As reported in The Mortgage Reports, for the third straight month, at least 15 of the nation’s 20 largest […]

When searching for answers regarding the workings of financial markets – past, present and into the future – it is often wise to turn to The Wharton School, one of the most well respected academic institutions, for insights.

In a thoughtful piece entitled, Collateralized Damage: Commercial Mortgage Securities Are at a Standstill, the on-line journal, […]

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 […]

According to Noah Rosenblatts post in UrbanDigs,
we are currently in a CRECESSION. 

Noah coins an interesting term that describes the odd economic state that we currently find ourselves in. He calls this state a – Crecession. Here is the formal definition: 
A period of economic activity where available credit is contracting and the cost of credit is rising, leading to […]

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 […]