"If you're in (commercial) real estate you are either depressed or have nothing to do."
"Every level of activity has stopped--debt is worth more than equity, there is no financing available, nobody is doing deals."
"It's dead."
"I've never seen anything like it."
Groups have been forming for months--many months--to do workouts and specialized asset management assignments--conservatively there's at least $100 billion in troubled real estate investments out there needing attention.
But despite all the TARP, stress tests, and Fed infusions banks and other institutions haven't been forced to write off and liquidate bad assets--everybody is still afraid to recognize market values because it might be just too much of a shock to the system... So we are in this period of languid calm where nothing can get done.
At least, transactions seem to be slowly picking up in the housing markets because banks are finally selling foreclosed properties. That's at least a sign of what's to come in the commercial world, but we're probably months away--at least through the summer and maybe not until next year.
It's frustrating, stultifying, dispiriting. Well, dead probably sums it up best.
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