Commercial

U.S. Will Extend Lending Program

The Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department have agreed to extend the Term Asset-Backed Loan Facility (TALF), which frees up loans to build apartment communities, office complexes, and other income-generating properties.

The move comes even though the program has yet to make significant progress in resuscitating the ailing commercial property market–due to its relatively small size.

White House officials have no plans to pad the program with more federal resources, even as rising vacancies and declining rents leave building owners vulnerable to default. Some observers fret that a new wave of defaults is on the horizon, with $814 billion in commercial real estate loans on pace to mature between now and 2011.

Source: Washington Post, Annys Shin and David Cho