Haven't we heard a similar story to this before, quite recently? Yes, we have. Again, courtesy Trepp, last month GlobeSt.com reported that the loan tied to two adjacent office buildings at Eaton Place in Fairfax, Va., was sent to the special servicer. The buildings are Willowwood I & II, owned by Liberty Property Trust. They are two five-story multitenant office buildings totaling 244,871-square feet.

Delinquent loans, foreclosure and REO activity are hardly new to the DC area. Two back-to-back transactions, though, do beg the question of whether there is a larger problem brewing. After all, the DC area's office market recovery has not been as robust as would have been hoped. The region has been struggling with the federal government's reluctance to ink long-term leases, to say nothing of sequestration. Also, until last week, it had been a number of years since Congress produced a budget -- an essential roadmap for local development activities.

A look at the current REO and delinquency activity here, however, suggests that it is still business as usual.

There are 49 loans that are 90 days delinquent, in foreclosure or REO. These range from a $150 million Corporate Office Properties Trust loan for various properties (a call to COPT was not returned in time for deadline) to a $1.8 million loan on a property in Greenbelt, MD. Sixteen of the loans are for more than $20 million. The majority, about 33, of the loans is in REO.

For the most part these are all problem loans that are just working their way through the system, Trepp Research Analyst Sean Barrie tells GlobeSt.com. "It was just a coincidence that the Hyatt Regency Bethesda sold to resolve a troubled situation and Eaton Place went to a special servicer so closely together."