Free Republic

“I don’t see any way of avoiding a great deal of pain in the commercial real estate market in 2021. It is almost inevitable. My friends at the Federal Reserve and FDIC are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with what’s going on in the commercial real estate world.”Cam Fine, Former President of Independent Community Bankers of AmericaWFH Threatens Commercial Real Estate ValuationsInvestors hold $3.4T in commercial real estate debt via bonds, direct loans, and securitized loan bundles. Core city commercial real estate valuations could decline if millions of employees work from home (WFH) permanently. Most analysts assume that once virus infections are...

Remember all that talk during the just concluded presidential campaign about this being the worst economy since the Great Depression? Or that President Bush's jobs performance is the poorest since Herbert Hoover was in office? Well, with the close of the 2004 calendar year comes the end of Mr. Bush's first term. Maybe without all the distractions and distortions that accompany a political campaign we can better determine what the real economic results are since our 43rd president was inaugurated. Let's begin with jobs. This past Friday's December employment report paints quite a different picture of the U.S. economy than...

<p>As warned recently, it's time to play the property tax game.</p> <p>My "new" valuation for 2005 arrived. It's up 15.7 percent. Yikes! That's on top of an increase as big last year.</p> <p>My property taxes increased more in the past two years than in the previous 16 years I've owned my house. Still the politicians say they need more money.</p>

Story last updated at 12:52 a.m. Wednesday, November 5, 2003 Voters buy into sales tax boost By JOHN FUQUAY AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Lubbock on Tuesday became the latest major Texas city to adopt a sales tax for economic development, with 61 percent of the vote backing the issue that also will reduce city property taxes. "Obviously, to say I'm pleased would be an understatement," said Mayor Marc McDougal, who introduced the plan during a budget work session in July. The proposal was partly to offset new property evaluations that, in some cases, hit homeowners with 40 percent increases in taxable property values....