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The majority of commercial property loans in the United Kingdom are currently in default, according to a study by CB Richard Ellis.  Approximately £200 billion ($327 billion) is required to refinance existing loans secured against £450 billion of properties over the next five to seven years.  Only half of that amount is available, according to […]

The announcement that President Barack Obama, after just nine months in the Oval Office, had won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize stunned the world — including the humbled recipient. “I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many transformative figures that have been honored by this prize,” Obama said […]

As a follow-up on a previous blog, the Chicago Cubs have been sold to the Ricketts family in an $800 million deal that encompasses the team, Wrigley Field and a 25 percent stake in Comcast SportsNet.  The Tribune will keep a five percent stake in the assets; this means the transaction is worth approximately $845 […]

The long recession has dramatically impacted the lives of all Americans, according to demographic data released by the U.S. Census Bureau.  Commutes are lengthier; people are not moving; immigration is down; and couples are delaying marriage.  The annual American Community Survey report, based on information gleaned from three million households, highlights how deeply the recession […]

Much has been made in the world’s press about India’s economy buoyed by its IT sector. And a lot of it is justified.  The nation’s IT sector managed to grow some 20 percent in 2008, according to India’s National Association of Software and Services Companies, and IT firms have already extended 100,000 job offers for […]

The wealth of the world’s high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) declined by nearly one fifth last year to $33 trillion, according to the 2009 World Wealth Report from Merrill Lynch and Capgemini.  A HNWI has at least $1 million of assets besides a primary residence, its contents and collectible items.  In 2008, the number of HNWIs fell […]

The Alter NOW blog is pleased to announce that we are among the select few to be included in the real estate section on Alltop, an internationally renowned website that collects the “headlines of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover a topic. Alltop, which envisions itself as the magazine rack […]

We are excited to announce that Michael Alter, president of The Alter Group, is part of an investment team that has purchased The New Republic (TNR).  TNR is one of the nation’s oldest political and cultural magazines.  The Obama administration has chosen it as one of the magazines placed on Air Force One, and Chief […]

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 […]

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 […]