New rates posted for commercial mortgage loan rates. Significant changes include slightly increasing longer year term rates along with continued uptick and some signs of activity in market activity the past few months. Things are still tight but opportunities do exist for investors. We'll keep you posted.

Reis Inc., a commercial-real-estate research firm, reported last week that average rents in the office sector dropped just 0.8% in the first quarter of 2010 compared to the last quarter of 2009. Rents were stable or rose in 23 of the 79 markets Reis tracks. This may not be a bottom, but it's a considerable improvement from just three months ago, when rents in 70 of the markets fell. Given the reporting lag, the bottom may well have already been reached. If so, this moment has important implications for investors, the banking and real estate sectors, and the economy as a whole.

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According to many, the next problem area in the financial sector is supposed to be commercial real estate. The unusually high number of vacant office and retail facilities observed on a drive through most any town or city seems to confirm that, as does a walk through most any shopping mall. Yet carefully selected REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) invested in commercial properties have been doing very well and continue to look good.

Read the full story from Forbes »

New rates posted today on the commercial loan rates page. Significant changes include lowering of various 3 and 7 year term rates along with continued uptick in market activity the past few months. Things are still tight but opportunities do exist for investors. We'll keep you posted.

Forbes reports: "It was just over a year ago that the NAREIT index of REIT shares hit bottom after dropping 75% from its peak in February 2007. It has since rebounded 94%. A nice start, but prices would have to better than double from today's level to get back to where they were. With hindsight, the bubble in commercial real estate looks pretty absurd. Purchasers of commercial property were so convinced that rents would go up forever that half-empty buildings changed hands at higher prices than those filled with solid rent-paying tenants."

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