Banks Increasing CRE Lending; Bond Spreads To Widen
February 8, 2010
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 [...]
WSJ on San Francisco Real Estate
December 28, 2009
Nothing new here, but WSJ has an article focused in on the San Francisco office market.
It’s a different kind of commercial-property slump from earlier this decade, however. While office rents collapsed after the dot-com bust, rents are holding steadier this time. Asking lease rates peaked at $67.73 a square foot in downtown San Francisco in [...]
Weakness In Apartments; San Jose Rent Falls Most
November 10, 2009
With unemployment at record numbers, it is no mystery that rents and vacancy rates would weaken in apartments. Especially hit hard are high priced areas such as San Jose, New York, and San Francisco, places where tenants typically leave if they remain jobless.
What is also fueling the decline in vacancy rates is the home buyer tax credits [...]
WSJ Roundup: Blackstone, Germans, and a Tenant’s Market
October 30, 2009
Blackstone’s Hilton Deal
The LBO market was torrid during 2006-2007. So was commercial real estate. Combine the two, and you have the Blackstone/Hilton deal.
In the Hilton negotiations, Blackstone is considering contributing $800 million of new equity to buy back debt at a discount. It also is seeking to extend debt maturing in 2013 to 2016, while [...]
Failed Bank Timeline
October 23, 2009
The WSJ has a breakdown of the bank failures thus far and accompanying graphic to go along with it. Unfortunately it’s not embeddable, but you can see it by going here.
Read More >>Fed Concerns About Commercial Real Estate Grow
October 7, 2009
The Federal Reserve is becoming increasingly concerned about commercial real estate. A Fed presentation reviewed by the WSJ indicates the body’s concern over the speed with which banks are recognizing commercial real estate losses and that the banks are on a similar track as when they were slow to react to the residential crisis.
In another [...]
Wall Street Displays Its REMIC Magic
September 30, 2009
The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see. – Ayn Rand
Well, the “professionals” of wall street are back after a short hiatus (actually they never really quit). Trying to find a way to move worthless paper and reduce capital requirements, they are are re-stacking the chips through REMICs (resecuritization [...]
Treasury Reworking Tax Rules to Help Dampen Commercial Real Estate Fallout
September 16, 2009
The Treasury today introduced new tax rules to help services, borrowers, and lenders to modify loans without having to worry about triggering tax penalties.
Until now, tax rules have made it difficult for borrowers who are current on their payments to hold restructuring talks with the servicers of these bonds. Developers and investors complain that only [...]
Chinese Sovereign Wealth Funds Look to US
September 9, 2009
The WSJ is reporting that China’s SWF, China Investment Corporation, is seeking to place bets on the US Real Estate market. To that end, they’ve held discussions with managers BlackRock, Invesco, and others.
The estimates in the article peg allocation in the range of $4-20B, but that is just a drop in the bucket of the [...]
Commercial Real Estate Worries Grow
August 30, 2009
Indeed, many property developers and investors complain there is no way to identify the investors that hold their debt and that it is difficult to negotiate with CMBS servicers. In light of the complaints, the Treasury is considering guidance that would allow servicers to start talking about ways to avoid defaults and foreclosures sooner, according [...]
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