U.S. CRE Defies Doomsday Predictions

Office building and retail property values are rising, defying predictions of a collapse that would drag the U.S. economy back into recession. Last February, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) Congressional Oversight Panel said that a deteriorating commercial real estate market had the potential to wreck the U.S. economy. The panel's report noted that almost half of the $1.4 trillion in commercial property loans set to be paid off by 2014 were under water.