No matter what you think will happen to Denver home prices, there is ample evidence to support you.Start with Thursday’s gloomy report from Metrolist on local single-family sales in September. Average prices are down 8 percent from August, median prices are down 4.6 percent and houses under contract are down an eye-popping 18.7 percent.

Most investors probably are hoping that the market turmoil of the last few months is blowing over.

But if it’s just a prelude to a much more serious financial shakeout, Howard Marks and Bruce Karsh are ready to pick up the pieces.
Marks, Karsh and their team at Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital Management have built a $47-billion investment portfolio in large part by stepping into situations other investors are fleeing.

Mostly out of the public eye, 12-year-old Oaktree has become one of the world’s biggest players in “distressed” securities — primarily bonds of companies that find themselves in financial trouble or are perceived that way by Wall Street.