The next collapse
October 23rd, 2009 Categories: Real Estate News
If there’s another real estate collapse on the way, it’s in commercial real estate, and the FDIC closing Chicago’s Corus Bank last month may have signaled the beginning of it. Corus, whose balance sheet full of bad construction loans, was just one of many banks that have this type of debt on their books, and refinancing the $2 trillion in commercial mortgages is going to be tough as property values decline. In this new age of cautious lending, few banks are willing to refinance loans. Michael Haas, a real estate attorney at Jones Day, says, “There is a hesitancy to extend credit when there is a real possibility that the real estate may be worth less than it was a few years ago.” In a situation similar to the subprime crisis, we may be looking for a wave of foreclosures and loan defaults that could, in turn, trigger a collapse in the market of the structured bonds backed by commercial real estate and construction debt.
From Chris Mcglaughlin
