Author: Tom Silva

According to a Grubb & Ellis report on the Chicago office market during the third quarter of 2008, vacancy rates increased slightly to 17.1 percent, versus the 16.9 percent reported during the second quarter.  Downtown Chicago reported a loss of 200,000 SF of occupied space during the third quarter, while the suburban office market posted […]

It should be no surprise that rental rates for office space have weakened as demand declines.  Nationally, rents for office space fell 1.2 percent during the fourth quarter of 2007, even though owners offered concessions such as free rent for a limited time frame to lure users.  According to Reis, Inc., a New York-based real […]

Consumer confidence fell to an all-time low in December, despite the fact it was in the midst of the annual Christmas-shopping frenzy.  The reasons for this new low include deepening job insecurity, fast-deteriorating housing markets, and declining asset values. According to the Conference Board, the Consumer Confidence Index fell to 38 in December, compared with the […]

The Federal Reserve is pulling out most – if not all — of the stops to thaw credit.  The central bank has cut its federal funds rate for overnight borrowing to just 0.25 percent, the lowest level ever.  But the move is likely too little, too late because the problem is not the lack of […]

The credit crunch and sluggish return-on-investment environment are impacting green commercial real estate development – and not in a good way.  Even on projects where dirt actually gets moved, it will be more difficult to incorporate sustainable design principles as companies become more cost conscious.  The greening of the workplace should pick up once again […]

The residential mortgage market is experiencing an unexpected – but welcome — boom, a result of interest rates for 30-year fixed-rate loans falling to 5.47 percent from 5.99 percent.  According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly review, the average rate for a 15-year fixed-rate loan – popular when refinancing – fell to 5.13 percent […]

The Alter Group’s One11 West Illinois Street, its 10-story, 227,604 SF Class-A-to-own office building in downtown Chicago’s dynamic River North neighborhood recently received a rave review and from the Chicago Tribune’s Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic Blair Kamin. Kamin praised architect Martin F. Wolf, Senior Principal with Solomon Cordwell Buenz & Associates, who “was challenged with a […]

Wonder where real estate titan Sam Zell’s investment dollars are going during these recessionary times?  Despite the global financial crisis, Zell is investing in countries like Brazil, Egypt, Mexico and China – all of which he says have a shortage of affordable housing and lack infrastructure. Zell, the chairman of Chicago-based Equity Group Investments, LLC, likes […]

It’s now official.  We are in a recession and it started a lot longer ago than we thought – in December of 2007.  That’s the verdict of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s (NBER) Business Cycle Dating Committee, the non-profit organization that economists and the government regard as the arbiter on recessions. According to the […]

Britain’s bailout of its ailing banks reflects a model that some critics characterize as nothing short of socialism, while the $750 billion bailout program in the United States is viewed as corporate welfare with very little oversight. Without supporting one or the other, following is a bare-bones comparison of the two programs: In the United Kingdom: […]