Detroit area’s home prices stay below 2000 levels

Home prices in the metro area are 28% below what they were in 2000, according to the
S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.

The two markets that have held up the best since the housing crisis began? Washington, D.C., and New York. These markets are still 70% above their January 2000 levels. read more here ..

90% of Last Year’s Distressed Commercial Real Estate Still Unresolved

According to data released this week by Real Capital Analytics (RCA), $36.9 billion dollars worth of last year’s distressed commercial real estate is still in an unresolved status or being held by the lender. These numbers do not include new commercial real estate that could be considered distressed, but only commercial properties “for which sufficient time has passed for lenders and borrowers to facilitate workouts,” said RCA.

These “seasoned distressed” properties are mostly being held due to distressed commercial real estate loans, and they are held by commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS) trusts and domestic lenders for the most part. Since CMBS loans tend to be resolved by loan restructuring, the lowered values of the properties and the changed finances of many of the lowers are leading, in many cases, to foreclosures where once a new loan simply would have been established.

And the commercial real estate market’s woes do not end there. In March alone, the net increase of outstanding commercial real estate distress was $4.8 billion, as newly troubled office properties, apartment complexes and retail properties entered the into distress status.

While this all sounds pretty bleak, in reality a lot of real estate investors are looking at the commercial real estate market in a new light. As the clear opportunity to help stabilize a market and generate wealth in the process has become evident, many investors are finding that the commercial real estate market – long the arena of insiders and experts – is becoming more accessible than ever before as the players struggle to resolve their issues, keep their properties and stabilize the commercial real estate market.