Friday, February 9, 2024

Real Estate/Banking Tsunami?

    Chinese investors and their creditors are putting up “For Sale” signs on real estate holdings across the globe as the need to raise cash amid a deepening property crisis at home trumps the risks of offloading into a falling market. The prices they get will help finally put hard numbers on just how much trouble the wider industry is in.

    The worldwide slump triggered by borrowing-cost hikes has already wiped more than $1 trillion off office property values alone, Starwood Capital Group Chairman Barry Sternlicht said last week. But the total damage is still unknown because so few assets have been sold, leaving appraisers with little recent data to go on. Completed commercial property deals globally sank to the lowest level in a decade last year, with owners unwilling to sell buildings at steep discounts.

    Regulators and the market are nervous that this logjam could be concealing large, unrealized losses, spelling trouble both for banks, who pushed further into bricks and mortar lending during the cheap money era, and asset owners.

There is a systemic risk of large-scale bank failures in the U.S. in 2024 due to charge-offs and write-downs emanating from the commercial real estate sector. Bank regulators have been vocal about their concerns that the too-big-too-fail banks would have sufficient capital to cover losses and a recession. However, they do not appear to be as concerned about how the projected losses will impact the large number of community banks in the country.

Meanwhile, back in the fantasy world inside the Washington Beltway: "Treasury Secretary: "We don't have to get the prices down because wages are going up."--Not the Bee.

2 comments:

  1. I’m sure our “leaders” in government could be more inept. Having a spot of trouble thinking of a clear example right at them moment…

    ReplyDelete

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