Doomsday predictions in the U.S. commercial real estate market are becoming more prevalent on a daily basis and the potential for commercial mortgage defaults is said to reach $1 trillion by 2012.

Tampa‑Franklin Street Real Estate Services has arranged the sale of distressed notes on a four-property multifamily portfolio formerly subject to Section 8 contracts.

The Carlton Group has been retained by a major financial institution to sell $257 million in first mortgage loans secured by a variety of commercial properties including retail, multifamily and industrial assets.

Portland, Ore.–Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC originated $18,664,000 in permanent, variable-rate debt through its Freddie Mac program to refinance Altamont Summit, a 439-unit multifamily community in Portland, Ore.

Las Vegas—Master servicers are witnessing greater numbers of borrowers trying to force the transfer of their loans to special servicing, according to Kevin Donahue, senior vice president of PNC Real Estate/Midland Loan Services Inc. “Borrowers are becoming a little savvier” in pursuing their alternatives, said Donahue. They understand that the master servicer cannot perform “material modifications” on the loan, he said.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said it has “serious concerns” with the legislation passed by the House Financial Services Committee that would create a consumer financial protection agency.

Will the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) be next to need the government to keep it afloat?

REITs have been raising capital on the stock market in earnest since the beginning of this year.

The timing of this recession could not have been worse. The National Bureau of Economic Research puts the start at January 2008. This coincides with the final leg of the lame-duck Bush Presidency. Regardless of your politics, it is clear that the Bush administration a) lacked the political power to produce apic1n all-encompassing response, and b) realized after Lehman’s demise that the complex, global recession developing was going to require a long-term solution.

New York—REITs posted their best-ever quarterly gains since the NAREIT indexes’ inception in 1972.