Posts Tagged ‘Mortgage Bankers Association’

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Home Delinquencies Fall; Foreclosures Rise

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

Fewer borrowers currently are delinquent on their home loans, a Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) report shows.  Curiously, new foreclosures are rising in states like California.  This is evidence that the nation still must endure significant pain before the housing crisis finally comes to an end.  According to some analysts, the nation is only halfway through the wrenching grip of the foreclosure epidemic.  That’s reflected in the housing market, where sales and prices continue to sag despite record low interest rates.  Five years after the crisis began, 7.99 percent of all mortgages were behind by at least one payment in the 3rd quarter but not yet in foreclosure.  Nevertheless, that’s down by nearly half a percentage point from the 2nd quarter and more than one percent when compared with last year.

The percentage of American mortgages that were somewhere in the foreclosure process at the end of the 3rd quarter was 4.43 percent, a slight increase over last year.  The rate of homes in foreclosure was highest in the East and Midwest that route residential repossessions through the courts, with Florida at more than 14 percent and New Jersey at eight percent.

Rather surprisingly, new foreclosures rose to 1.08 percent of all loans from 0.96 percent in the prior three months, according to the MBA. The rate had been declining since the 3rd quarter of 2010, when regulators began investigating robo-signing.  Some of the nation’s largest banks temporarily halted foreclosures while they addressed claims of flaws in their court documents.  The moratoriums clogged the entire foreclosure pipeline as banks investigated their procedures, said Patrick Newport, an economist at IHS Global Insight.  “Banks are starting to speed up the process now that they’ve cleaned up their paperwork,” Newport said.  “We’re seeing the backlog begin to move.”

Unfortunately, the improvement may be short lived.  For the 4th quarter, the pace probably will slow to 2.3 percent, according to the median estimate among 86 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.  The pace likely will slow to two percent in the first three months of 2012, according to the estimates.  “While the delinquency picture changed for the better in the 3rd quarter, the foreclosure data indicated that we are not out of the woods yet and that the issues continue to vary by geography,” Michael Fratantoni, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s vice president of research and economics, said.

“That’s really just reflecting the modest improvement we’ve seen in the economy broadly and the job market in particular,” Fratantoni said. “Job growth is not what we want it to be, but it’s been good enough to keep the unemployment rate at least level and that’s been beneficial here with fewer people falling behind.”

“While foreclosure activity in September and the 3rd quarter continued to register well below levels from a year ago, there is evidence that this temporary downward trend is about to change direction, with foreclosure activity slowly beginning to ramp back up,” said James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.  “Third quarter foreclosure activity increased marginally from the previous quarter, breaking a trend of three consecutive quarterly decreases that started in the fourth quarter of 2010,” according to Saccacio.  “This marginal increase in overall foreclosure activity was fueled by a 14 percent jump in new default notices, indicating that lenders are cautiously throwing more wood into the foreclosure fireplace after spending months trying to clear the chimney of sloppily filed foreclosures.”

Foreclosure were filed on 214,855 U.S. properties in September, a six percent decrease from August and a 38 percent decrease when compared with September of 2010.  September marked the 12th consecutive month where foreclosure activity decreased on a year-over-year basis.

A report issued by the Center for Responsible Lending found that 6.4 percent of mortgages created between 2004 and 2008 ended in foreclosure.  Another 8.3 percent of mortgages are at “immediate, serious risk.”  According to Fratantoni, “Given the pace of foreclosure sales — about one million foreclosure sales a year — it’s a three- or four-year process to get it back to a more typical level of foreclosed properties.”

The refinance share of mortgage activity fell to 77.3 percent of total applications from 78.6 percent the previous week.  The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 6.1 percent from 5.8 percent of all applications.  In October, 50.6 percent of refinancing applications opted for fixed-rate 30-year loans, 28.8 percent opted for 15-year fixed loans and six percent went with ARMs.  In terms of applications for home purchase mortgages, 85.5 percent were for fixed-rate 30-year loans, 6.9 percent for 15-year fixed loans and 5.9 percent for ARMs, the lowest share of that vehicle for purchases since January.

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Federal Regulators Floating the Idea of 20 Percent Downpayment Mortgages

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

Is a 20 percent downpayment on a house or condominium on the horizon?  If some federal regulators get their way, buyers may have to put down $60,000 on a $300,000 house to get the best possible mortgage interest rate.  Although this sets the bar high, regulators believe it will prevent the risky lending practices that ended in a rash of foreclosures.

Numerous groups immediately announced their opposition to the proposal, contending that a 20 percent downpayment is too burdensome for many working class would-be homebuyers.  If the proposal goes into effect in summer, it is not likely to have a major impact on the housing market for a while because the majority of mortgages are insured by federal agencies and are exempt from the rule.  John Taylor, chief executive of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, said “If we require 20 percent downpayments to get a loan, we will ensure broad swaths of working- and middle-class people will not be able to get a loan.”  According to Tom Deutsch, executive director of the American Securitization Forum, believes the 20 percent requirement will do little to encourage banks to make loans without federal backing.  “The extremely rigid proposals…will further prolong the U.S. government’s 95 percent market share of the credit risk of newly originated mortgages,” he said.

Sheila C. Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, disagrees.  “Properly aligned economic incentives are the best check against lax underwriting,” she said.  The Federal Reserve and Treasury Department also support the move, and other federal regulators are expected to get behind the new requirement.  The move comes as the Obama administration is working to end Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-backed mortgage companies, by reducing the competitive advantage they have over banks.  One proposal is to require the agencies to charge higher fees to draw private firms back into the mortgage market.

Mortgage Bankers Association CEO John Courson warns that the 20 percent downpayment requirement would further damage already sluggish housing demand.  “We believe that such a narrow construct of the risk retention exemption would limit mortgage opportunities for qualified borrowers more than it would reduce the number of problem loans,” Courson said.  Ron Phipps, president of the National Association of Realtors, said the new rules will further restrict mortgage credit and housing recovery overall.  “Adding unnecessarily high minimum downpayment requirements will only exclude hundreds of thousands of buyers from home ownership, despite their creditworthiness and proven ability to afford the monthly payment, because of the dramatic increase in the wealth required to purchase a home,” Phipps said.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who is leading the regulatory effort, said “Risk retention will help promote better standards for underwriting and securitizing mortgages, which is good for the long-term health of the housing market and for our nation’s economy.”  An element of the Dodd-Frank Act that impacts the residential market, known as “risk retention”, is a rule that requires that mortgage lenders and securitizers to invest a minimum of five percent of the risk on qualified residential mortgages. The rule will play a crucial role in determining how much risk banks have to retain from mortgages they originate or package into bonds known as mortgage backed securities (MBS) and then subsequently sell into the market.  “If this proposal goes through, the way it’s written, I think the housing market will not recover for years to come,” says Joe Murin, chairman of consulting firm The Collingwood Group.

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Obama Bypasses Congress to Boost Housing

Monday, October 31st, 2011

President Barack Obama executed an end run around Congress when he announced a significant retooling of a plan designed to help homeowners who are paying their mortgages, but still underwater, refinance their loans at a more affordable interest rate.  Administration officials said the changes will streamline the government’s Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) and could dramatically increase the number of borrowers who have refinanced their loans under the program past the current 894,000.  They did not specify how many borrowers might be eligible or likely to participate.  The program, which is voluntary to lenders, will be available only to homeowners whose mortgages were sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on or before May 31, 2009, and who have a loan-to-value ratio above 80 percent.

The downside is that hundreds of thousands more could not qualify – primarily because of the previous 125 percent loan-to-value limit on the program or because banks refused to take on the risk.  Raising the loan-to-value restrictions may help a limited number of borrowers, according to Jaret Seiberg, an analyst for MF Global Inc.’s Washington Research Group, which analyzes public policy for institutional investors.  The difficulty is that mortgage holders still must be up-to-date on their payments for the past six months — with no more than one missed payment in the past year.  Additionally, they also must qualify for a new loan.

Qualifying homeowners will be able to refinance their mortgages at the current low rates, which are currently near four percent. Obama’s move comes at a time when there is a fast-growing consensus that the nation’s declining housing market is negatively impacting the economic recovery.  Home values are at eight-year lows; and more than 10 million people are underwater, meaning that they owe more than their homes are worth.  “It’s a painful burden for middle-class families,” Obama said.  “And it’s a drag on our economy.”  The administration’s proposal underscores the scale of the problem, as well as the limits of public policy in resolving it.  By cutting monthly payments, the Obama administration hopes to make cash available for consumers to spend elsewhere.

According to housing regulators, one million borrowers might be eligible to participate in the program.  Unfortunately, that is just 10 percent of the number of homeowners who need help.  Although the Obama administration’s estimates say the average homeowner could save $2,500 per year, other projections said savings would be in the range of $312 annually.  This depends on the upfront fees the borrower pays, which can include thousands of dollars in closing costs.

Obama promoted the plan under his “We Can’t Wait” campaign, in which he will use the executive branch’s existing tools to improve the economy while Congress debates further legislation.  “We can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job,” he said.  “Where they won’t act, I will.”

“We know there are many homeowners who are eligible to refinance under HARP and those are the borrowers we want to reach,” said Edward DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which administers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The program expires at the end of 2013.  “We believe these changes will make it easier for more people to refinance their mortgage,” DeMarco said.  “Breaking this vicious cycle is one of the most pressing issues facing policy makers,” Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William C. Dudley said.  The HARP revamp is part of multiple efforts the government is making to boost home prices and consumer spending.  “It’s the equivalent of a tax cut for these families,” HUD’s Donovan said.

Mortgage lenders are “particularly gratified” at the revised plan, said David H. Stevens, president and chief executive officer of the Mortgage Bankers Association.  “These changes alone should encourage lenders to more actively participate.”

Writing in The Atlantic, Daniel Indiviglio believes that the revised program has potential.  “The administration appears to have accounted for all of the major obstacles to refinancing and eliminated them.  A home’s value no longer matters.  The cost should be less prohibitive to borrowers.  Much legal red tape has been cut.  Other loans tied to the home won’t stand in the way.  Ample time to refinance is provided.  This should help to allow at least a million Americans to refinance who haven’t had the opportunity to do so in the past.  If this works as hoped, then those consumers will have more money in their pockets each month.  Borrowers who see their mortgage interest rates drop from five percent or six percent to near four percent will often have a few hundred dollars more per month to spend or save.  If they spend that money, then it will stimulate the economy and create jobs.  If they save it or pay down their current debt, then their personal balance sheets will be healthier sooner and their spending will rise sooner than it would have otherwise.  The effort may even prevent some strategic defaults, as underwater borrowers won’t feel as bad about their mortgages if their payment is reduced significantly,” Indiviglio said.

Felix Salmon, writing in Reuters, could not disagree more. “For many reasons, it is very difficult to project the number of mortgages that may be refinanced under the enhancements to HARP, including the future path of interest rates, borrower willingness to undertake a refinance transaction and the number of lenders and servicers who choose to offer the program.  Given current market interest rates, our best estimate is that by the end of 2013 HARP refinances may roughly double or more from their current amount but such forward-looking projections are inherently uncertain.  First, by the end of 2013?  Never mind mortgage relief now, we’ll try and get you mortgage relief in two years’ time?  Secondly, the current pace of HARP refinancing is pathetic.  We’ve been managing to do less than 30,000 HARP refinancing a month.  And in the 28-month history of HARP, we’ve managed a grand total of 894,000 HARP refinancing, which works out to about 32,000 per month.  The FHFA is projecting that the pace of HARP refinancing won’t increase at all as a result of this plan. We’ll still average out at about 30,000 per month — maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less, but you’re never going to make a dent in the mountain of 11 million underwater mortgages at that rate.”

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Foreclosures Are Down, So Why Isn’t That Good News?

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

There’s good news and bad news about foreclosures.  Although the number of foreclosures fell to their lowest rate in 4 ½ years in April, the reason is a delay in processing the orders, not because Americans are experiencing less trouble paying their mortgages.  “Foreclosure activity decreased on an annual basis for the seventh straight month in April, bringing foreclosure activity to a 40-month low,” James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of foreclosure data company RealtyTrac, said.  “This slowdown continues to be largely the result of massive delays in processing foreclosures rather than the result of a housing recovery that is lifting people out of foreclosure.”

According to Saccacio, “The first delay occurs between delinquency and foreclosure, when lenders and services are no longer automatically pushing loans that are more than 90 days delinquent into foreclosure but are waiting longer to allow for loan modifications, short sales and possibly other disposition alternatives.  Data from the Mortgage Bankers Association shows that about 3.7 million properties are in this seriously delinquent stage.  The second delay occurs after foreclosure has started, when lenders are taking much longer than they were just a few years ago to complete the foreclosure process.”

Nationally, homes typically are taking 400 days to go from the initial default notice to bank repossession, an increase when compared with 340 days a year earlier and 151 days in the 1st quarter of 2007, RealtyTrac said.

According to RealtyTrac’s report,  219,258 American homes were involved in the foreclosure process in April, either having received a notice of default, been scheduled for auction or been repossessed.  This is nine percent less than from March and a 34 percent cut from April 2010.  The report also shows one in every 593 American homes received a foreclosure filing during April 2011.  In New York, it took a property 900 days to go through the process.  In Florida, it was 619 days and in California, 330 days.

Nevada tops the list of states for foreclosures in proportion to its population, with one out of every 97 homes receiving a foreclosure filing in April.  Arizona ranked second.  Although Arizona foreclosures fell 15 percent,  REOs (bank repossessions) rose 22 percent, keeping the state in second place for the fifth consecutive month.  One in every 205 homes received a foreclosure filing.  Similarly, a 22 percent jump in REOs kept California in third place for a sixth month despite a decline in activity, with one in every 240 units affected during the month.  Other states in the top five are Utah (one of every 322) and Idaho (one of every 325).

Just ten states account for 70 percent of all foreclosure activity.  The first two in terms of numbers of foreclosures, California with 55,869 filings and Florida with 19,649 and the fourth, Michigan with 12,996, have large populations.  Arizona and Nevada, with relatively small populations rank in the top five by virtue of numbers as well as foreclosure rate with 13,419 filings and 11,761 filings.  The next five states with the greatest number of foreclosures are Illinois, Texas, Georgia, Ohio, and Colorado.

Writing in The Atlantic, Daniel Indiviglio notes that “It’s hard to see how this is good news for the housing market.  Prices are likely falling more slowly since the foreclosures aren’t hitting the market as quickly as they should be.  But they cannot be held up artificially — the decline will just happen over a longer period of time instead of quickly and steeply.  That means it will take longer for the housing market to hit its true bottom.  Only when that occurs can a recovery begin.  In other words, banks’ failure to process foreclosures in a timely manner will prolong the housing market’s struggles.”

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Mortgage Applications Spike 16 Percent as Investors Take Over the Residential Market

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

Although analysts are sounding a cautionary note, the number of Americans applying for mortgages rose by 16.1 percent in the first week of March – the largest monthly increase since June of 2009. The activity could be due to investors with money to spend, and not the first-time homebuyers who will play a vital role in the housing market’s recovery.  The refinance index increased 17.2 percent and the purchase index increased 12.5 percent, to the highest level this year.  The refinance share of activity increased to 65.5 percent of all applications from 64.9 percent the last week of February.  That’s the good news.  That bad news is that mortgage applications are likely to decline over the next several months because homeowners are unable to sell their current homes and trade up.  At present, cash buyers and investors — lured by low prices and soaring rents — represent the majority of sales, said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist with Capital Economics.  Also, rates are low.  According to Zillow.com, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is now 4.73 percent.

During January, first-time homebuyers fell to 29 percent of the market, the lowest percentage in almost two years.  Foreclosures made up 37 percent of sales and all-cash transactions were 32 percent of sales — twice the rate when compared two years ago when the National Association of Realtors began tracking these deals.  New-home sales fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 284,000 in January. That is significantly less than the 700,000-to-800,000 pace considered healthy by a number of economists.

“Taking into account typical seasonal patterns, purchase applications rose to their highest level of the year last week.  On an unadjusted basis, purchase application activity is the highest since last May,” said Michael Fratantoni, MBA’s Vice President of Research and Economics. “An improving job market is beginning to pave the way for an improving housing market.  Additionally, mortgage interest rates remained below five percent for a second week, maintaining affordability for buyers and leading to an increase in refinance applications.”  The four week average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index rose percent.  The four week average rose 1.2 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is up 3.6 percent for the Refinance Index.  The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 65.5 percent of total applications from 64.9 percent the previous week.  Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARM) rose to 6.0 percent from 5.5 percent of total applications from the previous week.

“The housing market in the U.S. still has a lot of challenges ahead of it,” said Michael Gregory, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.  “Ultimately it’s all about how many homes still are going to hit the market. People don’t want to buy homes because they feel prices could fall further.”

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Uninsured Americans Rose 9.4 Percent of the Population in 2009

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

Interest rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage at record low 4.27 percent. Mortgage rates have hit a record low.  According to Freddie Mac, rates for 30-year mortgages fell to 4.27 percent from 4.32 percent in just one week.  At the same time, safe-haven government debt is more appealing to investors than ever, according to a Freddie Mac survey. The low rates may be a sign that housing sales will pick up since they slumped after the first-time homebuyer tax credit expired last spring.  Rates for 15-year fixed mortgages averaged 3.72 percent, the lowest level since Freddie Mac began tracking these loans in 1971.  In another bit of news, home prices rose 3.2 percent in July from the previous month, the smallest gain since March, according to a report from S&P/Case-Shiller.

“The 12-month growth rate in the core price index for personal consumption, which the Federal Reserve closely tracks, has been drifting lower over the past six months ending in August and suggests inflation is running at a tepid pace at best,” Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist, said.  “This allowed mortgage rates to ease to new or near record lows this week,” he said.

Michelle Meyer, senior U.S. economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, believes that potential homebuyers are staying on the sidelines despite enhanced affordability resulting from record low mortgage rates.  “The missing link is confidence — consumers are still worried about future income prospects given high unemployment rates and many believe home prices will fall further,” she said.  “In addition, credit conditions remain tight, making it difficult to get financing.  Mortgage rates are only one input into the decision to purchase a home, and seemingly subordinate to current and expected income.”

Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, FL, offers another perspective.  “You’re going to get some people enticed to buy new homes,” he said.  “But people are still a bit shell-shocked by the downturn in prices and they’re going to be a lot more careful than they were before.”

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Next Up on the Presidential Agenda? Reforming Fannie and Freddie

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

Reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is next on President Obama’s to do list. The next item on President Barack Obama’s ambitious agenda is likely to be overhauling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-backed mortgage firms that so far have cost American taxpayers $145 billion to keep afloat.  The two firms, which own more than half of the nation’s $11 trillion in home mortgages, collapsed along with the housing market and were taken over by the federal government in September of 2008.

Many Congressional Republicans believe that scrapping Fannie and Freddie is mandatory; Democrats disagree and President Obama is expected to support reforms backed by consumer, real estate and banking groups.  The core of the emerging consensus is to preserve the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage.  Susan Woodward, former chief economist at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and a founder of Sand Hill Econometrics, said “People regard it as a right as Americans to get a 30-year, fixed-rate loan.”

Banks and builders agree with consumer advocates representing homebuyers that it’s good for the government to promote residential lending by supporting what Fannie and Freddie have done for years – purchasing mortgages and bundle them into securities that they sell to investors.  When the system works as intended, the MBS market creates additional money that is funneled back into the market to make new affordable loans.  The task is to determine how to accomplish this without the lax practices that the taxpayers had to pay for when catastrophic losses occurred in 2008.

The Obama Administration and leading Democrats strongly believe that the federal government should have a role in promoting homeownership.  Shaun Donovan, HUD Secretary, said “We should not compromise any of our core policy goals in the decisions we make in structuring our house financing system.”

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Bernanke Sets Sights on the Growing Deficit

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

Ben Bernanke has the deficit jitters. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is warning that – even as the nation struggles to recover from the worst recession in 75 years – Congress must deal with an “unsustainable” level of debt.  “Our nation’s fiscal position has deteriorated appreciably since the onset of the financial crisis and the recession,” Bernanke said in testimony before the House Budget Committee.

Although Bernanke admits that the deficit was a necessary evil designed to bring the nation out of a deep recession, it has to be addressed in the long term because of the European debt crisis.  The budget deficit gap will narrow as the economy improves and stimulus programs are phased out.  The Fed chairman still sees several drags on the economy.  First and foremost is the jobless rate, which stands at 9.7 percent nationally, as well as the housing market that is plagued by foreclosures and short sales – of which 4.5 million are expected this year.  The good news is that the Fed’s recently updated Beige Book found that consumer and business spending are up slightly.  There is limited growth in the manufacturing, non-financial services and transportation sectors.

The housing market is expected to remain flat, thanks to the expiration of government-funded subsidies.  According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, the number of people applying for mortgages has fallen to its lowest level in 13 years.  Tourism also is down, partly because of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.  Inflation also is low, making it probable that the Fed will keep the benchmark U.S. interest rate close to zero.

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PIGS Financial Uncertainty Good News for U.S. Homebuyers

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

Troubles in Greece sending your mortgage interest rates to historic low levels. If you’ve noticed a recent drop in mortgage interest rates, thank the PIGS’ (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) troubles, which are causing jitters in the globe’s equity markets.  Seeking a safe haven, investors are putting their money into U.S. Treasury notes.  Because mortgage interest rates tend to rise and fall with 10-year U.S. Treasury note yields, this translates to good news for people contemplating a home purchase.  Freddie Mac noted that the typical 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 4.78 percent recently, down from 4.84 percent just a week earlier.  The record low of 4.71 percent occurred in 2009.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, homeowners are refinancing at a rate not seen since last fall.

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Commercial Real Estate Still Troubled

Monday, July 6th, 2009

Don’t look for the country’s commercial real estate market to improve any time soon.  In fact, expect it to continue to get worse for the next year or so.  That was the conclusion from a panel at the National Association of Real Estate Editors journalism conference in Washington, D.C., that addressed the question:  “Commercial Real Estate in the Obama Era:  Next Domino to Fall?”

“The (other) shoe has dropped,” NAREIT president Steve Wechsler said of commercial real estate.  While the public commercial real estate market of publicly traded REITs likely hit bottom in March, the remaining 90 percent of the market that is private won’t bottom out until next year.6a00e551d321cb883401157034b517970c-800wi

The $6 trillion property market is split evenly between debt and equity, thanks to the explosion of securitization that occurred in the 10 years prior to the current credit crisis, said Chip Rodgers, Jr., a senior vice president of the Real Estate Roundtable.  At the end of 2008, the commercial real estate industry had $3.5 trillion of outstanding debt.  Ten years ago, the industry’s outstanding debt was $1.3 trillion.

Washington-based Real Estate Roundtable has a plan to help end the crisis that’s paralyzed practically all speculative development on the commercial side.

First, Rodgers said, the Term Asset-Backed Loan Facility (TALF) program needs to be expanded to include commercial mortgage based securities.  Rodgers expects this to restart the securitization market.

Second, the United States needs to repeal or change tax laws that have curtailed foreign investment.  Changing the laws will attract new capital to the market.

Also, accounting rules and regulations need to be amended to ensure they do not create “a pro-cyclical impact on credit capacity,” Rodgers said.  And, banks that have existing cash flow need to be encouraged to extend loans.

The panel’s third member, Jamie Woodwell, a commercial real estate researcher at the Mortgage Bankers Association, said the current real estate recession differs from the 2001 recession.  In 2001, the dot-com bust results in large amounts of office vacancies while the retail market remained relatively stable.  Vacancy rates in office were closely tied to the country’s unemployment numbers.

“This time around,” Woodwell said, retail is more closely following unemployment numbers and being hit harder than the office market.  “More firms still have (office) leases in place,” he said.

But things will change, Woodwell said.  “Real estate is a very cyclical business, especially now.”

Our guest blogger is Tony Wilbert.  He is owner of Wilbert News Strategies, a public relations firm specializing in real estate.  Prior to moving into PR, Wilbert covered real estate at several newspapers and served as editor of National Real Estate Investor.

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