In contrast to the recent position taken by the Congressional Oversight Panel in their February 10, 2010 report mentioned in Part 1 of this series, there are economists, businesspeople and policymakers who have a less bleak forecast for the commercial real estate (“CRE”) loan market. One such example of this “non-crisis” position was presented in

The commercial real estate (“CRE”) loan market is floundering and is expected to increasingly experience high levels of losses over the next several years. The question on interested minds is whether the fall-out from CRE loan failures will mimic the devastation caused by the crisis in the residential mortgage loan market. Recently, the Congressional Oversight

Ohio is one of the few remaining states that still enforce cognovit provisions in promissory notes and other loan documents. A cognovit provision allows a creditor to take judgment immediately against a borrower upon the borrower’s default without having to endure the time, expense, and risk of a lawsuit. Cognovit provisions are only enforceable in

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has reported that Fannie Mae, a player in the national secondary mortgage market and unwitting owner of numerous abandoned properties in the Greater Cleveland area, has reached a deal with the newly formed Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation to sell properties to it for $1 each.

Compared with our last report

On October 30, a coalition of federal regulators issued the Policy Statement on Prudent Commercial Real Estate Loan Workouts. The Statement is designed to give greater flexibility to lenders in renegotiating or restructuring loans secured by commercial real estate, and should aid the flow of financing to credit-worthy borrowers. 

The first purpose of the Statement

On November 6, 2009, President Obama signed the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009. The new law extends the first-time homebuyer temporary federal tax credit for qualifying home purchases to April 30, 2010 and expands the eligibility requirements for purchasers.

Under the new law an eligible taxpayer must buy, or enter into a