If you seek change, why not exchange? If you have property in the UK, France, even Spain, and simply can not sell, why not try Bulgaria? If you’re an investor, looking for bargains, take a look. You may be pleasantly surprised at what’s available!
Although Federal Reserve Chairman Benjamin Bernanke was out in front of new cameras today declaring the severe recession impacting the U.S. will ease by the end of this year (it will? seriously?), a May 5th Reuters news release noted that losses of up to 12% on commercial real estate loans over the last two years are expected to be revealed at major banks undergoing recent government ‘stress tests.’ Regulators expect to cite these commercial real estate losses as the main reason that some of the largest banks in the world now need even more capital.
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Lately, even the mainstream media in the United States are overdosing on apocalyptic reporting.
Once you’ve covered a global financial meltdown, a global swine flu pandemic, the bursting of the largest residential real estate bubble in memory, the prospect of bankruptcy at two of the Big Three auto manufacturers, U.S. policies on torture (and its salient drawbacks and rewards), and the spectre of thermonuclear war waged by any of a handful of rogue nations currently run (or about to be run) by insane persons, you do start to get a little jaded.
More on Will Commercial Real Estate Be the Next U.S. Financial Disaster?
With investment companies buying up distressed properties in places such as Bulgaria, to hold on to for long term capital gain and eventual profit, maybe smaller investors should be looking to follow the same path.
According to Emirates Business, a law that would clarify the rules on issuing residency visas to property buyers in Dubai will be released within this year.
“We believe this has to be cleared. We raised it to the government and the government came back and said there is a law that will come very soon and we feel it has to come,” said Hamad Buamim, Director-General of DCCI.
Property prices around the world continue to decline as the financial crisis continues its way through the system. I don’t think anyone is under any illusions any more that we have not yet reached bottom. These are some headlines, although where bottom is is becoming more and more difficult to predict. With governments in disarray and it becoming clear that the banks have continued to disguise their true losses – even now. Available credit still presents a problem, and mortgage approvals are still extremely low.
Cities all across the midwestern U.S. are grappling with too many foreclosures. Many cities are witnessing the kind of urban blight in which entire blocks are swallowed by vandalized vacant properties, squatters, and meth labs. In some very large cities like Cleveland, entire neighborhoods are rapidly falling into decay.
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California, Arizona, Florida, and Nevada continue to lead the U.S. in foreclosures, but California is showing preliminary signs of a turnaround.
The cities with the greatest number of foreclosures include Las Vegas NV, Merced, Calif., the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area in Florida, and the California metro areas of Stockton, Riverside, Modesto, Bakersfield and Vallejo-Fairfield. Phoenix AZ, Port St. Lucie FL, Greeley CO, and Boise City ID also had extremely high foreclosure rates.
Dubai house prices will fall by up to 70% from their peak levels, says Swiss investment bank UBS. Having said that, we have seen prices for property for sale in Dubai already down to these levels, so this may actually be an optimistic outlook. There is a good argument that Dubai’s luxury property market will never recover, given the underlying fundamental issues – Pollution, falling expatriate populations, lack of laws to protect small investors, and an almost total lack of transparency. Top this off with the liquidity crisis in the financial system, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Kwame Kenyatta, Detroit Councilman and mayoral hopeful for the next election, has mailed the keys to his home in an upscale Detroit suburb back to the mortgage company and moved out.
