I looked at last 50 years, housing market slump was always behind a big job loss. In fact, past slumps had been caused by job loss on a local scale without exception.

This time something strange is happening. Job picture seems to be fine. Big conglomerate companies are making huge monies on a global scale. Weak dollars are helping them sell at a competitive pricing. Exports are growing. Definitely, we can conclude that this housing slump is not caused by the traditional factor: Job loss. Is it caused by subprime credit crunch? No, because this slump started in late 2005 and early 2006, long before the subprime became a problem. The subprime issue simply worsened the slump but it was not the cause.

San Francisco Office Market Cools in Q3
San Francisco’s scorching office market took a breather during Q3 2007 as both tenants and investors remained cautious due to jitters over the credit crunch and escalating rents. The city posted its 13th straight quarter of positive absorption, which included 120,000 sf absorbed in the central business district. Rent increases dropped slightly, with average rates growing 3.8% in Q3 2007, well below the 16.4% spike seen during the first six months of the year, according to Grubb & Ellis.

A German bank has pulled the plug on its deal to lend $160 million for a 41-story condominium project under construction downtown - the largest example in Denver so far of how the turmoil in international lending markets affects a local market.HypoVerinsbank, with more than $150 billion of assets, is backing out of its construction loan for the $175 million Spire at 891 14th St., across from the Colorado Convention Center. The deal represented one of the largest construction loans ever made in Denver.

California, anchored by two coastal cities with rising employment and rents, attracted almost $49 billion in commercial property investment in the first half of the year, more than any other state.

The most populous U.S. state had 29 percent more office, retail, hotel and industrial real estate sales by dollar amount than New York state and triple that of third-place Texas. California’s total investment was up 48 percent from a year earlier, research firm Real Capital Analytics reported. It trailed New York only in apartment sales.

More Loan Portfolios Brought to Market
The list of commercial mortgage and loan offerings keeps growing. DebtX has launched marketing for another $203 million of commercial mortgages and loans. That gives the Boston company some $500 million of loans that will be offered through Oct. 15. The portfolios are being brought to market amid a relative deluge of whole-loan offerings by a mix of conduit lenders, banking institutions and insurers. Despite the barrage of offerings most of the offerings will find buyers because of the variety of assets they represent. While debt-market troubles might be motivating some institutions to unload certain loans, most sellers are said to be banks that are making efforts to fine-tune their balance sheets.