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.

This week’s Trepp survey showed spreads unchanged. With an average spread of 164 basis points and ten-year U.S. Treasury bonds coming in 10 basis points, “all in” pricing of 3.5 percent or less for low loan-to-value loans is more than a little attractive from the borrower’s point of view and warranted from the lender’s perspective.
Maybe it was the upcoming holiday weekend. Maybe it was worries about Cyprus’s failing financial health. Maybe it was watching the S&P 500 index reach record levels. Whatever it was, this was the quietest period we’ve seen in a very long time.
A recent Wall Street Journalarticle expressed concerns by the Federal Reserve and other financial regulators about a potential deterioration in financial controls and underwriting quality for loans used to finance management buyouts, mergers and acquisitions, capital investment, and the like.
There could be a new and sizable player in the commercial real estate mortgage business, as more than one sovereign wealth fund (SWF) is rumored to be investigating originating commercial real estate loans for its own book.
Both Fitch and Moody’s Investors Service still give the U.S. their top rating, but both have placed it on a negative outlook, effectively warning that Washington will need to address the nation’s long-term debt issues in 2013 or face a downgrade.
Last week surprised both analysts and investors, as it lacked the volatility in the capital markets that many had expected to occur as the sequestration enacted as part of the Budget Control Act of 2011 approached.
The Real Estate Roundtables Q1 2013 survey showed a general improvement in respondents’ perception of current and future market conditions, tempered by concerns regarding budget concerns, job creation, and the prospect of increasing interest rates.
The Real Estate Roundtables Q1 2013 survey showed a general improvement in respondent’s perception of current and future market conditions, tempered by concerns regarding budget concerns, job creation, and the prospect of increasing interest rates.
According to CoreLogic, a real estate data firm, U.S. home prices in December 2012 increased 8.3 percent as compared with a year earlier, the greatest amount since May 2006.
The institutional investor market has been scooping up all the AAA, ten-year, “super senior” CMBS bonds it can as it prowls the debt capital markets in search of yield to fund payments to beneficiaries. One driver is the continuing month-over-month improvement in CMBS delinquencies as reported by Trepp LLC and Fitch.
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