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Container trade is entering rough waters, despite the strength of global supply chains and China’s status as the world’s factory.  According to AXS Alphaliner, a container shipping information service, 15 percent of shipping capacity will be idle by October — thanks primarily to the recession. Shipping companies that link Asian workshops with American retailers are […]

An interesting comment in an article that some might have missed.  GlobeSt.com reports that Eastern Consolidated CEO Peter Hauspurg said  “part of the whole thing that’s keeping these banks glued up with the CMBS is the fact [that] no one has been able to unravel the loans they understood when they made them.” Hauspurg noted […]

In terms of commercial property investment, one positive sign is from firms buying properties to use for their own business operations.  Called user-buyers, these investors have proven they are able to get money from banks to spend on property acquisitions — a relative rarity nowadays.  Those who do not need a loan already have earmarked their […]

Sales of new and existing homes rose in June for the third straight month, due primarily to low prices and attractive mortgage rates.  Home sales also rose 11 percent over the previous month. The federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers helped to drive the uptick.  Additionally, home prices rose for the first time in three […]

Finally, there’s encouraging news on the economic front.  The economy declined just one percent during the second quarter of 2009, a rosier report than was expected.  It is the strongest signal so far that the longest recession since the end of World War II is easing its grip. In a report issued by the Department […]

Over the last 30 years, China has become the world’s factory floor, offering a massive and highly mobile workforce, fast turnarounds and low production costs.  The “Made in China” label can be found on virtually any product sold across the globe, from shoes and clothing to power plant components and process control systems.  Even products […]

One European nation has escaped the worldwide financial meltdown and recession.  It’s Norway, which saved its money – rather than spent – through the boom years. As a result of frugal financial management, Norwegian housing prices and consumption are on the upswing and interest rates are affordable.  Norway’s fiscal responsibility of its income from enormous […]

More than $108 billion of commercial properties in the United States are now in default, foreclosure or bankruptcy.   That preliminary statistic is nearly double the amount reported at the start of 2009, according to New York-based Real Capital Analytics, Inc. At the end of June, 5,315 buildings were reported to be in financial distress.  Hotels […]

To purge their balance sheets of debt and avoid future writedowns, more and more U.K. banks are considering plans to transfer commercial property loans into REITs. Such strategies entail using REITs as publicly traded “exit vehicles” to limit the losses they and their borrowers face. The British Property Federation is currently pushing the idea to […]

The Watergate Hotel – the site where the “third-rate burglary” that sparked the biggest political scandal in American history and brought down Richard M. Nixon’s presidency was plotted — is now a distressed commercial property that failed to find a buyer at a much-anticipated auction. The 251-room hotel, with its spectacular views of the Potomac […]