Banks Increasing CRE Lending; Bond Spreads To Widen

Sentiment at the Mortgage Bankers Association meeting last week in Vegas showed improvement. More banks are not only willing to lend, but their threshold for risk and size is also increasing.
That readiness to restart was reflected in a separate survey of 60 banks and other lenders at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual conference in Las [...]

S&P: Worst Yet To Come For Commercial Real Estate Loans

Despite all the good news that you’ve been hearing about commercial real estate, we haven’t been entirely convinced. We’ve indicated that uncertainty and continued weakness in rents and occupancy are powerful enough forces to keep the commercial real estate sector in check for some time. Now S&P is out with a research paper entitled, “Industry Outlook: [...]

Bair: Bank Charge Offs Related to CRE Higher in 2010

The Chairwoman of the FDIC, Sheila Bair, indicated that the charge-offs will continue.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair said in a speech that regulators expect banks to report higher delinquencies and charge-off rates for commercial real estate properties in the first three months of 2010. Speaking to the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association, Bair said [...]

Credit Suisse Being Sued For High Loan-To-Value Loan

Credit Suisse is being sued in Montana for allegedly making loans based on inflated appraisals, so that it could take over when the debts couldn’t be repaid.
Classic. This would set a pretty gnarly precedent if the lawsuit goes anywhere.
Blixseth is suing for losses from his property at the Yellowstone Club in Montana, developed by his [...]

Banks Not Even Half Way Through CRE Writedowns

Moody’s is estimating that banks still have about $336B in write-downs to take next year, with $186B of that stemming from commercial real estate. While residential real estate is widely assumed to have peaked, and is spread across a large number of banks, commercial real estate losses remain on the back burner and are concentrated amongst a [...]

Meredith Whitney on CNBC – Liquidity Problems and Double Dip Ahead

We’ve posted some of Meredith Whitney’s comments before. She’s been way in front of the banking problems, and called the liquidity problems that ended up plaguing Citibank and other financials.
She was on CNBC back in April and started to warm up to equities and financials again. She was right. Now she’s back on and warning [...]

Sam Zell Optimistic on Economy

Sam Zell, of Equity Office fame, has come out indicating that the commercial real estate calamity is overblown. He is basing his premise on two things, one the workouts and other programs in place that are keeping a lot of deals from being sold, though one could argue on life support. The other is that [...]

Prudential CRE US Quarterly Update

Prudential has recently put out its quarterly update on US real estate. On debt markets:

At commercial banks…

Commercial banks, which represent about half of the $3.5 trillion commercial-mortgage market, remain largely stuck in the “extend-and-pretend” mode. Some banks are originating loans for balance sheets, but the capacity and appetite for such deals is limited. Many banks are working [...]

FDIC Adopts Policy Statement on CRE Loans to Help Banks

The FDIC has adopted a new policy which essentially gives a pass to banks with CRE portfolios that have diminished in value, but that are performing.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), in coordination with the other member Agencies of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), adopted a policy statement today supporting prudent [...]

Goldman Revises CRE Loss Estimates

Goldman Sachs has revised its expectations for CRE losses, and is concerned about exposure of banks and insurers with lots of CRE assets on their books. The Bank of Americas, Wells Fargos, and JP Morgans of the world are generally considered to be “too big to fail”, but community and regional banks holding a large [...]