Can We Count on the Fed? There's not a lot of faith in the government nowadays, especially among commercial real estate professionals, many of whom feel President Obama's stimulus package has left an important part of the economy out in the cold—namely CRE. In our weekly GlobeSt.com Quick Poll, which asked people "Can We Count on the Fed?" a mere 21% answered "Yes, It Can Get Us Out of This Mess," while 79% sided with "No, Its Prescription Won't Help CRE." Michael Tingus, president and managing principal of Lee & Associates–LA North/Ventura Inc., stands firmly with the majority.

I don't think currently what the Feds have in place is going to help much at all. All the money the banks have right now that the Feds are pushing out they are basically going to have to write down all the loans coming due. I was at the Real Share 2009 Conference just recently, and heard that $1.7 trillion in loans were coming due in the next 24 months. And basically, we've given all this money to the banks and we're not letting the natural cycle of the market do its job.

First off, it's not fair. I'd like to have some of the bail out money. I've been paying my mortgage. My income's been cut in half, my pension's been cut in half; half of my networth is out the door, half of the value of my home is out the door. But I'm not underwater and not paying my mortgage, and I don't get any relief. Instead of letting the natural course of the market reset, we're putting all this supposed stimulus money into the economy. My opinion is the majority is going to the unemployable, not the unemployed. Most of those jobs lost are coming from businesses that need help. I think there needs to be a whole lot more emphasis put on business and a whole lot less on keeping people in their homes.

And as far as the stimulus' impact on commercial real estate, I don't think it's going to do anything for commercial real estate, other than the money in there for small business loans, which will give small businesses access to buy small buildings. And I think they actually will.

When you start thinking about it, for quarter after quarter, it's been huge drops in the economy, in the stock market. The knife has been falling for quite some time now, since like May of last year. We've all been waiting for it to hit the ground before we picked it up. We waited for the election, we waited for the inauguration, we waited or the stimulus plan. Now the stock market's turning up, but I don't think the stimulus is really behind it. I think people are shirking to profitability. But, you can only shrink so far before you start depleting the resources you need to have in place before you start to grow again.

NOT FOR REPRINT

© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.