Borrowing money? It's all about the leverage.

Here's an interesting interview with Neil Lawson, joint head of real estate investment banking at Eurohypo. Granted, he was talking more about European markets than here, but we're in a global economy now, so I think his views are important on a more macro basis.

His take on what is going on? The near and mid term impact of the market may be bumpy and have some turmoil, especially with respect to highly-levered properties. But he also sees this crunch as different than the 1990s real estate crash, which was caused by worldwide overbuilding. We don't have that problem here. He also thinks that the feeding frenzy will slow down and that interest rates are at or near their peaks. Hopefully he's right.

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