Banks in 2010: The Commercial Real Estate Angle

The Atlanta Fed notes that a recovery is under way, and shifting from government support to the private sector.
Housing Now
1.End
of 2009: home sales increased in every district but San Francisco,
where activity was steady and Kansas City, which declined
2. Lower priced homes typically purchased by first-time home buyers outpaced sales of higher priced homes
3.
Prices have remained at their low levels. Boston, Philadelphia, and
Cleveland experienced price declines while Dallas reporting some firming
4. Residential construction activity is at low levels in most districts, except Chicago and Minneapolis
5. Rising vacancy rates and falling rents reflect the weakness in commercial real estate
Commercial Real Estate is the Big Question For Banks
The risk associated with commercial real estate is linked to banks, small business credit and jobs.
Banks
are facing 900 billion dollars of bad or weak commercial paper, largely
held by small or regional banks. Small business depend on small or
regional banks for financing and they are not getting loans.
The
concern now is a negative feedback loop, where banks wont loan money to
small business so they cant hire. And without jobs, commercial property
will see more vacancies, lower cash flows and lower evaluations, since
that is dependent on strong economic activity. All this, just as they
line up at the banks doors looking for strong asset evaluations and a
bank ready refi
Its anybodys guess as to how this will play out,
but the banks will need to sort this out before they take on new risks.
Credit flow will remain MIA and that means a muted real estate recovery
for now.