Business Week's Hot Property blog has a good post today about a CRE bailout. And perhaps we should all stop calling it that.
The NAIOP's proposal is: loan guarantees from Treasury and the FDIC. And they point out this is not unlike 2001-2002, when we all went through the wringers of terrorism insurance. That was a royal pain but we got through it thanks to the government backing. Do the same with CRE and it could be a win-win situation.
As the story points out, this is more a liquidity issue than an overbuilding one (at least for now...let's see what retailer goes under today), and guarantees instead of cash could go a long way toward getting critical refinancings done. Without that, who knows what?
So, let's spin this...it is not a bailout. It is not a bailout. Nice mantra, huh?
