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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: NOW who wrote (46109)	2/8/2006 3:19:38 PM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 116555

Banks eased commercial real-estate loan terms in 2005 Wednesday, February 8, 2006 8:03:40 PM afxpress.com WASHINGTON (AFX) -- Domestic banks surveyed by the Federal Reserve said they eased terms for commercial real-estate lending in 2005, citing aggressive competition from other banks. At the same time, domestic banks reported weaker demand for mortgages to purchase homes, the Fed said in its January senior loan officer survey. Almost 30% of banks surveyed by the Fed said they reduced spreads of loan rates over the cost of funds in 2005. Another 25% said they raised the maximum size of the loans they were willing to extend. Sixty percent of foreign institutions, meanwhile, said they narrowed spreads of loan rates over their cost of funds. The Fed polled 56 domestic banks and 19 foreign banks for the quarterly survey. Over the last three months, about 10% of domestic commercial banks reported a further easing of lending terms for commercial and industrial loans, the Fed said. Moreover, 45% of those banks said they'd trimmed spreads of loan rates over their cost of funds for such firms. Sixteen percent of domestic banks reported higher demand for commercial and industrial loans in the past three months. Credit standards for residential mortgage loans were unchanged since October, the Fed said. But 44% of domestic banks reported weaker demand for mortgages to purchase homes. About a quarter of respondents said they increased the minimum percent of outstanding credit balances required to be repaid each month. Demand for consumer loans, meanwhile, fell since October, with about 30% of domestic banks reporting weaker demand. The Fed noted bankruptcy filings spiked in September and October in advance of tougher bankruptcy laws that went into effect on Oct. 17

To: NOW who wrote (46109)	2/8/2006 5:22:14 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116555

Apartment owners: Get out or rent doubles heraldtribune.com As more complexes convert to condos, renters are left in the lurch. By MICHAEL BRAGA michael.braga@heraldtribune.com SARASOTA -- A letter from the new owners of the Three Fountains Apartments has tenants, many of them elderly and disabled, panicked. The way they read it, residents of the Webber Street apartments must agree to a doubling of their rent -- from about $750 to $1,600 a month -- or move out by March 1. The letter offers no way to contact the new owners except by mail and no one associated with the complex is offering further illumination. ======================================= Totally disgusting and probably illegal You can not terminate a lease at will (unless there was a provision in the lease that stipulates so, and in this case I doubt it).