As far back as May, I had warned that commercial property was destined for a bust — collateral damage in the real economy. In particular, I mentioned the U.S. commercial real estate (CRE) market as a particular problem for local and regional banks, which have large exposure to the CRE market. In May, I [...]

Stories of commercial real estate distress in the U.S. are mounting. As the residential real estate fallout takes form, commercial real estate has come under pressure as well. The Wall Street Journal has a front-page story out today that highlights the situation in the Sun Belt. We should see the distress in [...]

Back in June, I wrote about financial investors in bank shares having lost $10 billion. Then, I predicted that losses would mount and bank shares will fall. It seems that one part of that equation is true already as bank shares have fallen precipitously in the last several days on the heels of [...]

Mike Morgan is a Florida real estate professional with years of experience. He is often featured on Mike Shedlock’s site with his commentary of Florida real estate as ground zero in the housing bubble. He writes about his basic premise that we have been in the eye of the storm, but that there [...]

The Washington Post has a story on regional and healthy banks that I highly recommend. Essentially, we are past the first wave of writedowns and are moving into phase two where it won’t be about derivatives and RMBS’s as much as underlying loan losses and collateral damage in commercial property and construction loans. [...]

Regional banks have not suffered the writedowns suffered by the major banks and investment banks due to their lack of derivatives exposure. But, loose lending standards are starting to bite. The LA Times has an excellent story out, which details how the community or regional banks will be affected by the housing slowdown. [...]

This morning, I posted a blog entry regarding KeyCorp’s wise decision to cut its dividend and to raise capital. They paid the price in the market today, sinking to a 17-year low below $12.00 a share and down 24% on the day.
Shares of KeyCorp sank to the lowest level in almost 17 years, following [...]

Deutsche Bank has sold three New York skyscrapers back to the Macklowe group at a discount of 20-30% reports the Wall Street Journal. This could be a watershed moment in the U.S. commercial real estate (CRE)sector. CRE is a sector that is poised for a fall due to a slowing real economy.
“Deutsche Bank is cutting [...]

I have posted a few times on the problem surrounding an imminent writedown wave for commercial real estate (CRE) and construction loans in the US. A few days back, I had intended to post more about regionals. The Wall Street Journal had a good article about this problem, singling out Wachovia and Bank of [...]