July 7 (Bloomberg) — U.S. commercial real estate sales in the first half totaled about a quarter of the average of the previous six years as owners kept properties off the market, impeding investors with record funds for purchases.
Buyers and sellers completed $34.2 billion of deals through June, or 26 percent of the average first-half [...]

By Dirk van Dijk
The market sold off in response to a Beige Book that saw only modest but widespread growth in the economy, with all 12 districts seeing an economy on the upswing in April, although some parts of the economy saw a loss of upward momentum in May. The most important areas of strength [...]

Ben Stein is a well know economist having written for the New York Times and other publications. This column is worth a read. Click the REA 9 logo for the full article.

U.S. economy grows 3.2 pct in Q1
Fri Apr 30, 2010 8:31am EDT
WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) – The U.S. economy grew at a slightly slower-than-expected pace in the first quarter, held back by inventories and exports, but resurgent consumer spending offered evidence of a sustainable recovery, a government report showed on Friday.
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While the news reports and [...]

Even though the overall number of U.S. jobs continued to disappear through December of last year, the U.S. office market unexpectedly posted positive net absorption for the quarter. The most likely explanation is that jobs in the office sector increased. According to federal government jobs data, office sector employment increased for the fourth consecutive month [...]

The outlooks for the New Year have begun coming in and a review of year-end forecasts for 2010 show that many commercial real… » Click here for full story

Hope and fear are overlapping in the commercial real estate industry on this eve of a new decade. The industry doesn’t know whether to look out for it or look forward to it. On the one hand, the industry is grateful that 2009 is coming at long last to an end. It was by many [...]

 Home building in San Diego County and statewide is running at record-low levels as the housing market struggles with continued distress, but there was a spark of life in October.
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Eighty years ago this fall the stock market crashed, which was followed by the Great Depression. That catastrophe, coming on the heels of World War I, destroyed the faith countless numbers of people had in democratic politics and traditional free markets. The Depression itself was portrayed as proof positive that markets are inherently unstable and [...]

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Banks operating in the United States continued to restrict the availability of credit to consumers and business customers over the past three months, with only a few banks showing more willingness to lend, the Federal Reserve reported Monday.
Credit remained especially tight for commercial and industrial loans, commercial real estate loans and credit [...]