The Dirt Lawyer's Blog Archive

That's what this article claims is happening, at least in Orange County. On top of loan money often not being there, the disconnect between buyers wanting to buy low and sellers wanting to sell high might be narrowing. Until that happens in many more markets, and money is there to lend instead of being spent on raising banker salaries then you'll see slow activity. Oh, and it goes without saying that a soft leasing market does not help either, and that won't improve for so long as unemployment keeps rising. I am starting to sound like Chicken Little again and I don't like that, so I'd better stop writing.

The New York Times has a gloomy piece today on the cycle of layoffs to subleases to vacancies to building owners not being able to pay the mortgages, thus leading to a potential "ticking time bomb." According to the story, Many commercial property owners will face a dilemma similar to that of today’s homeowners who cannot easily get mortgage relief because their loans were sliced and sold to many different parties. There often is not a single entity with whom to negotiate, because investors have different interests. By many accounts, building owners have been caught off guard by how quickly the market has deteriorated in recent weeks. Rising vacancy rates were expected in Orange County, Calif., a center of the subprime mortgage crisis, and New York, where the now shrinking financial industry dominates office space. But vacancies are also suddenly climbing in Houston and Dallas, which had been shielded from the economic downturn until recently by skyrocketing oil prices and...

CoStar reports the ubiquitous Younan Properties is taking the plunge on 180 N. LaSalle, with a closing date of no later than December 17. There's light at the end of the tunnel? That's what panelists were saying in Irvine yesterday. If you own a title policy through LandAmerica or are closing a deal with them, don't panic. Fidelity has you covered . If you have a 1031 account with them, then, you may have a problem . That company and the holding company went bankrupt. Lawyers Title and Commonwealth Land Title did not and are being sold to Fidelity and are doing business as usual. Bailout money and CRE: where's ours ? Doug Cornelius has a great post on the New York Daily News "stealing" the Empire State Building by preparing and recording fraudulent deeds. Apparently they conveyed the building right back the next day, but I agree with Doug (caveat: I am also not licensed in NY) that someone will get in trouble over this one way or another.