The debate over tax cuts enacted in 2001 is expected to heat up when the U.S. Senate reconvenes in September after its summer recess. The maximum tax rate on capital gains and dividends will revert from the current 15%, a 70-year low, back to 20% on Jan. 1, 2011, and commercial real estate experts are beginning to speculate on the impact that reverting back to the higher rates will have on the still-fragile economic recovery.
The likelihood of higher marginal and capital gains and dividend taxes, along with the impacts of health-care reform, financial regulatory reform and proposed changes in the way investment and leasing income are accounted for, has been a major preoccupation of the real estate industry in 2010. As the stretch run for the mid-term election campaigns unfolds, however, with the national unemployment rate stalled at around 9.5%, many Republicans and U.S. businesses are wasting no time in calling on President Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress to extend the capital gains tax cuts for all income brackets, including families earning at least $250,000 a year.
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Posted: Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 5:18 am
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Since the start of 2009, buyers and sellers have transacted about $16.5 billion in distressed commercial real estate sales. Certainly more are expected to follow. Banks and CMBS special servicers are currently dealing with nearly $290 billion in distressed loans and properties.
CoStar Group recently analyzed the state of distressed real estate across the U.S., and presented its findings in a webinar on Wednesday in which it, discussing who is holding distressed real estate, how much presently exists by product type, what distressed deals have closed so far, and where the best opportunities are expected for buying distress in the near future.
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Posted: Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 4:56 am
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A new change in accounting rules may require commercial real estate tenants and banks to recognize all leases as liabilities on their balance sheets.
This could cost commercial tenants both time and money, drive down commercial property values, make it tougher for investors to buy property and force banks to have to raise more capital. It also could make it harder for companies to get loans and mean fewer tenants for commercial landlords as some companies move to buy property rather than lease it.
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Posted: Friday, August 6th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
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James Currell is struggling to prevent his Minnesota home from being foreclosed. But his lender isn’t a bank. It is the U.S. government.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is facing the prospect of foreclosing on a number of properties in the coming months, from homes to commercial buildings, a result of a souring mortgage portfolio it took over when it helped bail out Bear Stearns in 2008.
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Posted: Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 at 5:58 am
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