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 […]

Despite an ongoing financial crisis that has spared few industries and countries, participants in the recent Knowledge@Wharton Real Estate in Emerging Markets Forum, and posted on a recent ezine (January 16. 2009), focused on the opportunities that still exist in underserved markets for those who know where to look. Below are five (5) interesting excerpts […]

One mans trash is another mans treasure. Here is a report to mull over, for those with cash and/or financing facilities. Is the glass half-full or half empty? Depends ….
As reported by the Baltimore Business Journal, the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. region ranks fifth in the nation for metropolitan areas hardest hit by the nationwide credit crunch, […]

If you were wondering what impact the awful economy has had in 2008, and will have in 2009, on retail commercial space, read Bloombergs reporting. Here are a few shocking details ….

U.S. retailers face a wave of store closings, bankruptcies and takeovers starting next month (January 2009), as holiday sales are shaping up to be the […]

More bad news. The Architecture Billings Index, which is compiled from a monthly survey of architecture firms around the U.S., is at its lowest level since the American Institute of Architects survey began in 1995.
A Leading Economic Indicator: Since the index reflects an approximate nine- to twelve-month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending, […]

Yet another great special article published in the Maryland Daily Record, by Venable’s Kevin L. Shepherd, Esq.: On Real Property - Fraudulent concealment: Scary thoughts for sellers. Read the full article for all the gory details.  
Shepherd writes about a recent decision by the Court of Special Appeals in Rhee v. Highland Development Corp. et […]