Daily Real Estate News  |  January 25, 2008  |   Some Businesses are Still Thriving
Not everybody is feeling the pain as the U.S. economy slows.

Europeans are splurging on U.S. real estate. One third of New York City condos sold in the past 18 months went to foreign buyers, according to real estate analysts Radar Logic Inc.

Baltimore law firm Gordon Feinblatt just added a real estate restructuring group to its practice to deal with the demand. And business advisers such as Baltimore's FTI Consulting Corp., which helps troubled companies reinvent themselves, are doing well. Customers include residential homebuilders and subprime lenders, says company chairman Dennis J. Shaughnessy.

Landlords are also among the winners. The rise in foreclosures in particular has spurred many owners to become renters, says Bernard Markstein, a senior economist for the National Association of Home Builders. "Those people have to go somewhere. And they often go back into the rental market," he says.

Source: The Baltimore Sun, Tricia Bishop (01/22/08)