Real Estate and the Financial Crisis: How Turmoil in the Capital Markets is Restructuring Real Estate Finance

RECOMMENDED READING Real Estate and the Financial Crisis: How Turmoil in the Capital Markets is Restructuring Real Estate Finance by Anthony Downs (©2009, Urban Land Institute, 180 pages)

TONY DOWNS' 2007 BOOK Niagara of Capital documented the causes of hyper-liquidity, loose credit and rapid asset appreciation in commercial and residential real estate markets. His new book follows that excellent account with an equally accurate but more forward-looking volume. Real Estate and the Financial Crisis: How Turmoil in the Capital Markets is Restructuring Real Estate Finance was published in April of 2009, but events of the past four months have not dated it. His concerns and scenarios for the future will clearly dog developers and property investors for years to come.

For a readership with little time to spare, Downs' writing style is wonderful. Excellent organization, clear headings, liberal use of bullet points and well presented graphics enable one to finish the book in about three hours yet still absorb an enormous amount of information. It is literary efficiency in action.

Many commercial practitioners (myself included) largely ignored the single-family residential market. In this particular crisis, subprime loans really did matter; though if you asked many of us in commercial markets three years ago, we would have been unfamiliar with...