I've been selling investment properties in New York City for 25 years and have never seen anything like the low level of sales that the market experienced in the first quarter of 2009. In order to know just how abysmal the volume of sales has been, let's review a little history. In order to study volume...

There was a point in time when I was applauding the Governor for his position on the state budget. Very early on, he was beating the drum of favoring reductions in government spending as the way to solve the state budget deficit. He gave speeches and lobbied for spending cuts. At the end of the day, this...

The government has seized the opportunity of not letting a good crisis go to waste. They have forced banks to take TARP money, against their will in some cases, and when those banks want to pay it back they are discouraged from doing so. Why? The government wants to control the banking industry and dictate...

For those of you who are golfers, you will appreciate the following tale. I was playing my first round of the year this past weekend and thought I was having one of the best rounds of my life. I warmed up on the range for an hour before I teed off and spent another thirty minutes on the practice putting...

Yes, I know that I am a commerical investment property sales broker, so why do I track the national housing market so closely? The answer is that this market has the most profound impact on our financial system, which affects our capital availability, which in turn affects our commercial real estate markets....

The commercial real estate market needs money. We need investment dollars to pour into the market. Should we encourage foreign investment? Do we really care where the cash comes from? As Jerry McGuire's client  said, "Show me the money"! FIRPTA creates a speed bump for foreign capital. It may...

Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, rolled out some of the details of what insiders are referring to as TALF 2.0.  This program has two componets, the Legacy Loan Program and the Legacy Securities Program. These programs are expected to help the commercial real estate industry based upon the premise...

I am asked this question several times every day.  The true answer is that I do not know and no one knows. We are in unprecedented times. There are so many factors to look at to try to figure out when this market will start to correct but nothing that has happened, thus far, has indicated that we...