GLG News in Real Estate

Harry Truman said, "It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours." Clearly Mr. Torto still has a job, but he is, in my opinion, basing his "correction but no catastrophe" assessment of the commercial real estate markets on something other than the facts.

I have been a consultant to major construction lenders for over ten years.  In this time I have averaged three property conditiion assessment or pre-project review assignments per month.  In 2008, I have received less than one assignment per month.  The firms that I consult with have confirmed that this drop in activity is due to a lack of new projects coming onstream.  There is...

In the San Joaquin Valley of California, we are see much of the same as the rest of the country.  People who purchased homes at the peak of the market with exotic loans are now finding themselves unable to pay their mortgage payments. 

So far, the widely touted recession in the US has yet to notch up even one quarter of economic decline. Retail hasn't grown much, but neither is it shrinking to any great extent. Retail developers and REITs are likely to have asymmetric vulnerabilities depending on the location of their assets.

Solar Panel systems are not yet cost effective for builders to use on traditional housing.  Overall, an environmental movement will help sell homes, however, it must make financial sense to be widely accepted in the building industry.

No matter what the story, Simon and all other shopping center developers fortunes are directly tied to retail rents and rents are directly tied to sales. Depending on the region, retail and food sales are down 10% to 30% and an unprecidented number of independent retailers and restarantuers are simply closing their doors. "You can't get blood from a stone," my Mom used to say, and you can't get...

I believe that Shanghai's real estate market is already entering the correction period, which may last for several months. In some suburban parts of Shanghai, the prices may receive a downward correction of more than 20 percents. Remind that many hot parts in Shanghai experienced 50-100% housing price soar in 2007. But a large plunge of price is unlikely for the whole...

The recent spike in gas prices has been followed by a reduction in crude oil and the promise of cheaper gas in the future. But no one believes it will cease to be a problem for retailing and every other facet of our daily lives. But is this our biggest problem in the retail and shopping center business? I contend that we will adapt to the energy problems, electric and hydrogen cars will give Detroit...

The Philippines is still in a middle of an economic and property boom that started in 2004-05 but is weighed down by stagflation and high commodities concerns.

There are a number of areas in the country, while having experienced some effects of this situation, are not operating as this article describes Fresno operating. Our nations news media is often not accurately reporting the facts and is contributing to the "mental recession syndrome".  While it is unfortunate, the bailout of California, Florida and other states by the federal government is not...