Commercial Real Estate Finance

Posts Tagged ‘community banks’

Commercial Real Estate Week In Review for the Week of August 21-27

- The Dodd-Frank overhaul will impact private equity, real estate and hedge funds.

- Apartment buildings are leading delinquency rates in New York.

- Investors seem very eager about distressed retail opportunities.

- Wells Fargo is jumping back into CMBS.

- Believe it or not, commercial real estate actually made gains in the second quarter of 2010.
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KC Fed President Tom Hoenig

Yesterday, Kansas City Federal Reserve President Thomas Hoenig spoke at a field hearing of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.  Read Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s report on his testimony here.  In answering lawmakers’ questions, Hoenig offered his take on the recovery of the U.S. economy.  The most salient bit of Hoenig’s testimony, and the bit that many reporters latched-on to, was his suggestion that community banks have been placed at a disadvantage in competing with the behemoth banks like Citibank (NYSE: C) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC).  According to Hoenig, many community banks have thus far proven strong enough to stand up to the tests posed by a struggling economy.  If they are to make it through this recovery, however, they will need to be given an equal chance as large banks to succeed.

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Discussing financial regulatory reform’s impact on community banks and the real estate market with James Hyman, CEO of Hopewell Valley Community Bank; Frank Sorrentino, CEO of North Jersey Community Bank; and Dennis McCormack, managing partner of Prominent Properties Sotheby’s International Realty.

Private equity firm Fortress Investment Group has made two deals in the commercial real estate arena. Daniel Mudd, CEO of the Fortress Investment Group, discusses the deals.

CMBS stands for commercial mortgage backed securities.  Of course, if you asked borrowers about 18 months ago (and many even today), you might have thought it stood for Commercial Mortgage Bull $hit.  When CMBS financing was introduced to the commercial real estate industry earlier in the decade, it was viewed as a Godsend.  This was because rates and terms were better than those being put out on term sheets from conventional banks.  The reason for this, of course was that the loan originators (often large banks) would not keep these loans on their balance sheets, but instead sell them off in tranches, with the help of investment banks, to individual investors who had a wider appetite for risk.  Rather than putting all of their eggs in one basket with one property, they technically owned pieces of multiple properties that were all pooled together.  On the surface this seemed like a great idea and a win-win for all involved.  Obviously, the lax underwriting standards for these loans did not (and maybe could not) have taken into account the tumultuous events of the credit crisis. Read the rest of this entry »

About a year ago we dedicated an entire week’s worth of posts to famed Analyst Meredith Whitney. As a quick refresher, she was responsible for “the call” on Citi, where she (almost prophetically) predicted that Citi was in serious trouble. Following a quick rise to fame, she was subsequently dubbed the “Oracle of Wall Street.” She left her job at Oppenheimer and started her own advisory firm: Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, LLC (rolls off the tongue, no?). She even made Forbes.com’s Best Analysts: Stock Pickers list. Her new advice: avoid anything related to the financial industry. Read the rest of this entry »

This Valentine’s Day, Bill Maher has a message for all of us who are still in an abusive relationship…. with our Bank!

Starwood Hotels CEO on Earnings and Outlook

Geithner On Community Banks

What’s the best way to stave off inflation fears?

Ironically….it may be to invest in Real Estate.

Should Obama force Community Banks to Lend?