It's time to buy.....
 Commercial Real Estate from Bill Effinger 
  

Under all is the LAND. Upon its wise utilization and widely allocated ownership depend the survival and growth of free institutions and of our civilization. The interests of the nation and its citizens require the highest and best use of the land and the widest distribution of land ownership. They require the creation of adequate housing, the building of functioning cities, the development of productive industries and the preservation of a healthful environment.
 

Breaking News:

 

Goldman faces tough questions over SEC suit

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Goldman Sachs executives endured a barrage of questions from the investment community and reporters Tuesday for its role in creating a complex mortgage security which has since prompted federal fraud charges against the company.

Even as Wall Street's top investment bank reported a first-quarter profit of $3.5 billion, the results did little to alleviate the intense scrutiny the firm has been under since the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the firm with defrauding investors last Friday.

Last week, the agency filed a civil suit against Goldman, alleging that the New York City-based company allowed hedge fund Paulson & Co., who made billions of dollars betting against the U.S. mortgage market, to help select securities in a so-called collateralized debt obligation, or CDO. MORE



Commercial Real Estate Woes Generate Business for Court

REAL ESTATE: Trigild, Douglas Wilson Adding Workers
By MIKE ALLEN
San Diego Business Journal Staff

The commercial real estate market is a mess and getting messier by the month, but local companies involved in the process of cleaning it up are enjoying the best of times.

San Diego court appointed receivers Trigild and Douglas Wilson say they’ve gotten so much business in the past two years, they’ve had to turn a lot of opportunities away.

“Our gross revenue has doubled from last year, and our net has more than doubled,” said Bill Hoffman, president of Trigild and a 33-year industry veteran.

Before the recession took hold, Hoffman says his business, which manages and sells the distressed assets of defaulted borrowers, would get a few calls a month for new potential projects.

By 2008, those calls began averaging two a day. In the past several months, the calls from lenders are up to about six a day, including one daily for yet another defaulting hotel loan.

“The hotels are a disaster, and it’s going to get much worse before it gets better,” Hoffman said. MORE




A plan to save commercial real estate 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    
By Janet Morrissey, contributorMarch 5, 2010: 4:19 PM ET

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Economists have long been predicting commercial real estate could be the next day of reckoning for the financial markets, with a wave of defaults looming as billions of dollars in troubled loans come due in the coming months.

But a little-noticed bill introduced in January could help bring a new source of desperately-needed liquidity to the sector: foreign investment.

Introduced by Joseph Crowley, a six-term Democratic congressman representing parts of New York City's Queens and Bronx boroughs, the Real Estate Revitalization Act of 2010 would eliminate certain taxes that were part of the Foreign Investment Real Estate Property Tax of 1980, or FIRPTA -- which requires foreign investors to pay as much as a 55% tax on capital gains from the sale of U.S. real estate or shares in real estate investment trusts and real estate operating companies. MORE



2010 Commercial Real Estate Forecast  
No Spin Zone:
CRE Plunge is Inevitable
 By Steve Christ
Thursday, January 28th, 2010 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Fortunately for President Obama, he didn't have to deliver the State of Commercial Real Estate Address last night...

Because if he did, there is no amount of spin that he could have used to put a good face on the reality of the situation: commercial real estate is a disaster in the making.

In fact, that point was only underscored earlier this week when the owners of the Stuyvesant Town apartment complex announced they would default on the $4.4 billion in loans they used to buy the property at the peak of the commercial bubble.

Now, some four years later, that deal has soured just like the rest of them, as falling rents and plummeting real estate values have turned their big purchase into a no-win situation for everyone involved

That left Tishman Spenser and Blackrock with their only option: handing the keys back to the lender after missing a $16.1 million interest payment and watching the value of their property fall 65% from the peak.

Left with a property now worth only $1.9 billion, they simply threw in the towel in one of the most expensive cases of jingle mail on record. MORE 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Visit Our Wall Street Greed-Watch Blog