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Consumer Deleveraging = Commercial Real Estate Collapse

Posted on 10/7/10 at 7:10 am
Posted by Rivers
Florida
Member since Nov 2008
3256 posts
Posted on 10/7/10 at 7:10 am
Why, you may ask and it's a fair question to a bold assertion. Here is a post from Zero Hedge that will help you to understand. Of course, no one wants CRE to collapse, me included for I have a considerable amount of CRE...but, I have no retail CRE, and minimum office space.

Jung said that change ranks right up there with death among the things that people fear the most. I agree, but the madness of crowds has brought us to a point where change is not just a necessity, but an inevitability. People go mad in herds and they return to reason one at a time.

Here is a portion of the Zero Hedge article and link at bottom to full article...

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"There is a Part 2 to the story of Consumer Deleveraging that will play out over the next decade. Consumers will deleverage because they must. They have no choice. Boomers have come to the shocking realization that you can’t get wealthy or retire by borrowing and spending. As consumers buy $500 billion less stuff per year, retailers across the land will suffer. To give some perspective on our consumer society, here are a few facts:

•There are 105,000 shopping centers in the U.S. In comparison, all of Europe has only 5,700 shopping centers.
•There are 1.2 million retail establishments in the U.S. per the Census Bureau.
•There is 14.2 BILLION square feet of retail space in the U.S. This is 46 square feet per person in the U.S., compared to 2 square feet per capita in India, 1.5 square feet per capita in Mexico, 23 square feet per capita in the United Kingdom, 13 square feet per capita in Canada, and 6.5 square feet per capita in Australia.
Despite the ongoing recession and the fact that consumers must reduce their spending over the next decade, irrationally exuberant retail CEOs continue their death march of store openings. Below are announced expansion plans for some major retailers:

•GameStop – 400 new stores
•Walgreens – 350 new stores
•Dollar General – 315 new stores
•Ashley Furniture – 300 new stores
•Target – 128 new stores
•Starbucks – 100 new stores
•Best Buy – 55 new stores
•Kohl’s – 50 new stores
•Lowes – 45 new stores
Retailers expanding into an oversaturated retail market in the midst of a Depression, when anyone without rose colored glasses can see that Americans must dramatically cut back, are committing a fatal mistake. The hubris of these CEOs will lead to the destruction of their companies and the loss of millions of jobs. They will receive their fat bonuses and stock options right up until the day they are shown the door.

All of the happy talk from the Wall Street Journal, CNBC and the other mainstream media about commercial real estate bottoming out is a load of bull. It seems these highly paid “financial journalists” are incapable of doing anything but parroting each other and looking in the rearview mirror. Sound analysis requires you to look at the facts, make reasonable assumptions about the future and report the likely outcome. Based on this criteria, there is absolutely no chance that commercial real estate has bottomed. There are years of pain, writeoffs and bankruptcies to go.

Let’s look at some facts about the commercial real estate market and then assess the future:

•The value of all commercial real estate in the U.S. was approximately $6 trillion in 2007 (book value, not market value).
•There is approximately $3.5 trillion of debt financing these commercial properties.
•Approximately $1.4 trillion of this debt comes due between now and 2014.
•The delinquency rate for all commercial backed securities exceeded 9% for the 1st time in history last month and has more than doubled in the last 12 months.
•Non-performing loans are close to 16%, up from below 1% in 2007.
Do these facts lead you to believe that the commercial real estate sector has bottomed, as stated in the Wall Street Journal? The Federal Reserve realized the danger of a commercial real estate collapse to the banking system over a year ago. They have encouraged banks to extend and pretend. The website www.MyBudget360.com describes in detail what has occurred:"

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Excellent charts and remainder of article at link... LINK


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