Daily Real Estate News  |  March 26, 2009  |   Commercial Delinquencies Double
The delinquency rate on commercial real estate has more than doubled since September 2008 to 1.8 percent in March, according to data from Deutsche Bank A.G.

That’s the highest it has been since the 2000 downturn and some analysts say this indicates that the current commercial real estate recession will rival the one in the early 1990s when about 1,000 savings and loans failed.

The Real Estate Roundtable, a trade group, estimates that commercial real estate in the U.S. is worth $6.5 trillion but is leveraged by $3.1 trillion in debt. Because the numbers are so big, the potential losses could be staggering.

The downturn still could be resolved if the economy improves and the Obama administration is successful in making financing more available, observers say.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Lingling Wei (03/26/2009)