From the monthly archives:

June 2009

Agency Mortgage REIT Dividends Get Better & Better

June 25, 2009

Shamefully, I haven’t done much with Agency Mortgage REITs here, but the times they are a changing. Agency REITs are killing it on net interest spreads, and that is causing higher net incomes and increased dividends. What else could an investor want, next to a portfolio of government-guaranteed mortgage debt? Not surpringly, many investors screech […]

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20 Recession Proof Real Estate Markets

June 24, 2009

Like politics, all commercial real estate is local. The Brookings Institute has just published a study on the 100 largest MSA’s in the country, and it concludes that there actually are green shoots in commercial real estate, and many of them are to be found in over-looked, secondary markets in the middle of the country. […]

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9 REITs That Had to be Destroyed in Order to be Saved

June 20, 2009

In 1968 at the height, so to speak, of the Vietnam War, U.S. Air Force Major Chet Brown was fresh out of ideas and common sense. Tired, frustrated and on the wrong end of a microphone after a battle for the provincial capital of Ben Tre, he famously allowed that it had become necessary to […]

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REITs Queuing Up To TALF Trough By the Dozen; Debt is the New Equity

June 18, 2009

REITs cracked the capital markets code this quarter. What looked like one of the biggest incipient financial train wrecks since the Great Depression has turned into a scramble for REIT scrip of almost any stripe. The MSCI US REIT index is up 55% from it’s March lows, and $15 billion in credit lines have been […]

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Iran

June 18, 2009

“The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.” Thomas Jefferson

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Maguire (MPG) Sells Orange County Property at 40% Discount to Cost

June 15, 2009

Maguire Properties (MPG), the Office REIT that bought 24 office properties and 11 development sites from Blackstone for $2.88 billion at the height of the market, just got a market read on its Orange County holdings. According to the Wall Street Journal, Emmes Holdings in New York recently agreed to buy MPG’s stake in a […]

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How to Make A Fortune with REITs in 2010

June 13, 2009

Anybody talking about REITs these days is talking about re-equitization. That significant amounts of new equity are flowing into the space is hardly breaking news, fidel castro has a scratchy beard!! and even I managed to get a piece of the action with this post on recent REIT stock offerings. What is the real significance […]

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REITs Quietly Sell Stock Overnight at a Discount; Next Day Pop Fries Shorts

June 8, 2009

If Frank Quattrone could start over, he would be a REIT banker. REITs staged a huge rally this quarter, almost $15 billion in new equity has been raised through 45 public offerings this year, and even the Italians are descending upon New York to list new deals. With REIT stocks now being served up like […]

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Cliff Diving With New York City Landlords

June 3, 2009

According to Robert Knakal of the eponymous in Manhattan commercial real estate brokerage firm Massey Knakal, the dismantling of Wall Street on September 15th is also dismantling the net worth of hundreds of New York City landlords. It’s actually not that simple, but his excellent and striking sales data sets the stage: the New York […]

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