Commercial Real Estate & Business News – December 26, 2017

The past year has seen CMBS credit metrics improve marginally over deals that came to market in over the two previous years, Fitch Ratings said Thursday. However, the ratings agency also sees continued “bar-belling” between stronger and weaker loans in a securitization. “Bar-belling is an issue because the stronger loans will not make up for losses that the weaker loans in the deal may incur,”…»

Metro Phoenix’s apartment building boom has a different look in the suburbs. You might have driven by one of the new rental complexes and thought it was a new home subdivision. Developers are building single-story, unattached rental homes with private backyards that look much like single-family houses. More than a dozen of these horizontal complexes have recently been built or are under construction. And renters are snapping them up. …»

Rising rent prices are pushing would-be renters to actually buy homes rather than rent apartments, condos or single-family homes in high-priced areas. And because of that, the resale and homebuilding market is benefitting significantly. This trend could be considered an inversion from what is common practice for the decision-making process in housing. Typically, renters are those who cannot obtain mortgage financing…»

In the wake of commercial real estate data firm Xceligent filing for bankruptcy protection, the property data industry was not surprised-it’s an expensive field to be in. Still, some in the sector lamented the loss of another competitor in an increasingly narrow field. Before it filed for Chapter 7 liquidation, the firm was embroiled in a lawsuit with real estate data giant CoStar Group Inc…»

The political world may seem turbulent, but real estate experts point out that all the headline noise of 2017 did not have any visible impact on capital markets. Therefore, many conclude that 2018 will see more of the same, with balanced fundamentals and long-term secular trends driving a steady performance. …»