Real Estate Issues

A Brief Look at the Dodd-Frank Act

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is the most sweeping piece of financial legislation enacted in the US since The Great Depression of the 1930s. The stated purpose of the act is to promote the financial stability of the US by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end too big to fail, to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices and for other purposes. The act requires regulators to create some 243 rules and to perio...

Different Perspectives: Banking and the Outlook for Recovery in U.S. Real Estate Markets

Moderator In a roundtable discussion, three executives shared their views on issues the US's banks are facing. According to CRE K.C. Conway, executive managing director, Market Analytics, Colliers International Valuation and Advisory Services, the three issues that he believes the nation has been trying to come to grips with in the bank regulatory world are: first, the size of the real estate problem; second, the concentration of real estate in the banks compared to any other time in US history; and th...

Editor's Note

Emerging Market Real Estate Investment: Investing in China, Brazil and India

Emerging Market Real Estate Investment: Investing in China, Brazil and India, by David J. Lynn and Tim Wang, is reviewed.

Government Property Assets in the Wake of the Dual Crisis in Public Finance and Real Estate: An Opportunity to Do Better Going Forward?

It is well established that governments of all levels, including state and local governments in the US and European Union countries, control large and diverse portfolios of real estate, infrastructure, movable property, and business interests. Governments own property and infrastructure for performing their functions, and for a whole host of other reasons. Paradoxically for public management as a whole, property assets, despite being the major part of public wealth, often are the least visibl...

Small Business Jobs Act of 2010: Impact On the Real Estate Market

Congress acted swiftly in September 2010 to pass what is known as the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 (hereafter called the Act). Signed by President Obama on Sept. 27, 2010, the Act means more business tax relief for small businesses and emphasizes the need to provide additional support in the process of economic recovery. This article presented some key changes made by the Act that are important for small businesses and real estate owners. Much of the material for this article was drawn fro...

The Income Tax Effects of Health Care Reform On Small Businesses and Real Estate Investors

If real estate investors and small business owners intend to maximize after-tax profits and maintain appropriate levels of capital investment, they must have a working knowledge of the latest legislative changes enacted by the US Congress that pertain to real estate and to small businesses. On Mar 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, followed closely (March 30, 2010) by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act which amended t...

The Outlook for Recovery in U.S. Real Estate Markets

In this economy, real estate of all types has instead become a drag on recovery. In fact, current housing market conditions in particular are notably slowing the progress in getting out of trouble. More than one trillion dollars in loans on commercial properties will become due in the next few years, but many of the borrowers concerned will be unable to repay them or even just roll them over. Commercial property values have fallen from 25%-40% since the crash of 2008. Because of high unemploy...

Timing the Market: You Don't Have to Be Perfect

It is widely accepted and known that macroeconomic cycle conditions directly affect the returns and cycle conditions of commercial real estate (Pyhrr, Roulac and Born, 1999). As macroeconomic conditions improve or deteriorate, fundamental demand for commercial real estate will react, thus affecting returns, and often, prices. The authors analyses show that a bottom in real estate prices and returns can occur after the bottom of the macroeconomic cycle occurs; as such, investors can profit by ...