Stephen Blank

Stephen R. Blank joined ULI in December 1998 as Senior Fellow, Finance. His primary responsibilities include: expanding ULI’s real estate capital markets information and education programs; authoring real estate capital market commentary; participating as a principal researcher and adviser for the Emerging Trends in Real Estate series of publications; organizing and participating in real estate capital markets programs at ULI events worldwide; and participating in industry meetings, seminars, and conferences. Prior to joining ULI, Blank served from December 1993 to November 1998 as Managing Director, Real Estate Investment Banking of Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. His responsibilities included: structuring, underwriting, and executing corporate financings including initial public offerings of common and preferred shares, unsecured debentures, and convertible bonds; property acquisitions, dispositions, and financing; and financial advisory services including mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, and recapitalizations.

The Commercial Mortgage Alert Trepp weekly survey of 15 active portfolio lenders “took a licking” as spreads widened in many sectors of the debt capital markets. Regardless, all-in costs remain in the 5.00+/- percent range and should be range bound for the foreseeable future, subject to a “Black Swan” event (which is not too hard to imagine if one just looks at the newspaper each morning).
The Commercial Mortgage Alert Trepp weekly survey of 15 active portfolio lenders remained static, with all-in costs remaining in the 5.00+/- percent range. Our sense is that rates will be “range bound” for the foreseeable future, subject to a “Black Swan” event, like the U.S. Government defaulting on its sovereign debt.
The Commercial Mortgage Alert Trepp weekly survey of 15 active portfolio lenders widened 5 to 10 basis points during the week, with all-in costs remaining in the 5.00+/- percent range.
One key takeaway from the 2011 ULI Real Estate Summit Industry Roundtables is that there is now a line to get money invested in income-producing real estate, says ULI’s senior fellow of finance, Stephen Blank. Read Blank’s litany of takeaways from ULI’s Spring Council Forum sessions, “Real Estate Capital and Policy Trends” and “Sourcing Debt and Equity.”
The Commercial Mortgage Alert Trepp weekly survey of 15 active portfolio lenders came in a little during the week with all-in costs remaining in the 5.00+/- percent range.
The Commercial Mortgage Alert Trepp weekly survey of 15 active portfolio lenders remained literally “frozen in place” over the past few weeks as spreads widened 15+/- basis points, offset by a 15 basis point decline in Treasury yields. All-in cost remains in 5.00 to 5.25 percent range.
The April/May Federal Reserve senior loan officer opinion survey notes that both credit standards and loan terms to commercial and industrial (C & I) borrowers continued to ease with the percentage of domestic banks tightening C & I lending standards continuing to moderate (with fewer banks reporting tightening standards). Are commercial banks showing an increasing willingness to extend credit to both small and large business and household borrowers?
According to Trepp LLC, the U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) delinquency rate (comprised of the percentage of loans 30+ days delinquent, in foreclosure, or held on the books of the lender as real estate owned (REO)) increased 23 basis points (0.23 percent) in April to 9.65 percent, the highest rate in history and the largest increase on a monthly basis since December 2010. See the break out by property sector and read the key takeaways.
The FTSE/NAREIT Equity REIT (real estate investment trust) Index was up 5.11 percent in April, up 13.00 percent through April 30th, and pays a 3.29 percent dividend, too. All 13 property sector sub-indices were positive in April, ranging from the leaders—office/industrial (+7.38 percent), regional malls (+7.15 percent), and diversified (+6.91 percent)—to the laggards—industrial (+2.13 percent), timber (+2.29 percent), and freestanding retail (+2.95 percent). Read about the year-to-date basis leaders and laggards.
Whatever the principal reason, the nation’s largest banks reduced their holdings of commercial real estate loans in 2010 by approximately $75 billion (7.5 percent) to roughly $929 billion. Not surprisingly, the entire decline was associated with changes in one loan segment: land and construction loans. Total mortgages on income-producing commercial and multifamily property, however, remained relatively static at about $609 billion and $134 billion, respectively.
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