Here's a roundup of news and notes on retail and retail real estate from around the Web this today.
The Wall Street Journal estimates that commercial mortgages are failing at the fastest pace in nearly 20 years. It expects $30 billion in losses by the end of 2009.
Felix Salmon has a post up about how debt (in the form of CMBS) is being rolled over into equity (in the form of REITs)--a strategy he applauds. It's a response to this Reuters story from over the weekend. Wall Street Pit explored this idea further and disagrees with some of Salmon's conclusions.
Moody's latest Commercial Property Price Indices showed that commercial real estate prices dropped 7.6 percent in May. This followed an 8.6 percent drop in April. Overall, indexes are down 29 percent from a year ago and 35 percent from their October 2007 peak.
In a marriage of commercial real estate research outlets, Property and Portfolio Research Inc, a Boston-based real estate analysis firm agreed to be acquired by Maryland-based CoStar Group in an all stock deal. CoStar will pay $22 million for PPR.
