HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!
The rumors have finally come true. Overwhelmed by debt payments and a steep drop in customer spending, Eddie Bauer filed for bankruptcy protection today, becoming yet another high-profile Northwest corporate casualty of the recession. Major retailers that have filed for bankruptcy protection since the start of the economic turndown of 2007 include: Linens ‘n Things, Circuit City and Joe’s Sports & Outdoor.
Eddie Bauer has reported struggling with...
Straight from the Department of Employment Security.......
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The West Coast economy generally continued to weaken from mid April to the end of May, according to the latest “beige book” survey released Wednesday by the Federal Reserve. No surprise there. However there are some interesting signs of life in the summary for the 12th Federal Reserve District, the nine-state region that includes Washington state.
According to the survey, the sectors in the 12th District that have the strongest "heartbeats" are...
Here's a quickie: The bad news is that Seattle area real estate prices are down 10-15% on average from the end of last year. The good news is that properties with list prices reduced in line with that 10-15% are selling, sometimes with multiple offers. The buyers are out there if only sellers and agents are willing to market and price properties for today, not last month or last year.
Posted: 3:34 pm PDT May 28, 2009
The Fed Opens Aid Program to Commercial Properties
By Mark Felsenthal
WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve on Tuesday further widened its safety net for downtrodden credit markets by making older commercial property loans eligible for an emergenc...
U.S. Office Vacancies Rise to Three-Year High, Cushman Says
By Hui-yong Yu
April 16 (Bloomberg) -- Office vacancies in U.S. downtowns increased to 12.5 percent in the first quarter, the highest in three years, as companies cut jobs and new buildings came onto the market, Cushman & Wakefield said.
The national office vacancy rate climbed from 11.2 percent in t...
King County REALTORS Induct Officers, Honor Special Achievements During 2008
Seattle is the No. 1 commercial real-estate investment market in the country for 2009, even though it's in worse shape than a year ago, according to a forecast released today by the Urban Land Institute and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
By Eric Pryne
Seat...
As we bring 2008 to a close, it is becoming clear that we are in the midst of what could be a lengthy and prolonged recession. Our outlook for the commercial real estate industry changed dramatically during the third quarter of 2008 as the credit market unrest that first engrossed the national economy in August 2007 escalated into a full-blown global financial situation. Al...