It's No 200 Billion, But Still…

In a bit of good news for the CRE industry, as well as the retail sector, Bloomberg BusinessWeek recently reported that JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) sold $375 million in bonds connected to the Palisades Mall in West Nyack, NY. This issuance of CMBS tied to the 10th largest shopping mall in the U.S., owned by Pyramid Managment Group, LLC, seems to be an indication of some gradual improvement over the investor timidity we've seen since the recession struck. As the BusinessWeek article points out:

Wall Street banks have arranged about $26 billion of commercial-mortgage backed securities this year. While that's up from $11.5 billion in 2010, issuance totaled more than $200 billion in 2007 when commercial-real estate prices peaked [...]

Perhaps it's better to focus on the fact that this year has seen more than double the CMBS that were arranged last year, rather than the fact that–well, you know.

The CRE market doesn't seem to be making huge gains across the board, but as Fitch Ratings reported last month, certain sectors and areas of the country are seeing improvements, such as:

–Retail and multifamily properties in the Rocky Mountain region;
–Offices in the Southeast; and
–Hotels in the Far West.

I guess the moral of the story is, while we're not in anything remotely like the pre-Recession bull market, there are still opportunities, in a variety of sectors across the country, in which commercial real estate professionals with an eye to market trends can continue to see productive investments.

#CRE #finance #CMBS