Monday, December 22, 2008

Bailout Du Jour: Commercial Real Estate Developers Line Up at the Taxpayer Trough

Commercial real estate developers are now approaching Congress for a bailout, saying that commercial real estate mortgage defaults are now rising rapidly. The developers have told regulators that because credit has tightened, they are having difficulty rolling over their loans when they come due. Commercial real estate typically uses mortgages of 3-5 years, especially during the construction phase, after which they roll them over to new mortgages, often with a different lender. The tight credit market, combined with rising default rates, is proving to be a perfect storm in the commercial real estate market.
Regular readers will recall that about two weeks ago, I mentioned here that Eric Hovde had predicted that commercial real estate would eventually result in another economic crisis, and another shoe would fall.