The Ides of June

A series of separate but unrelated economic, fiscal and monetary events are about to end the party, if one can call it that, for stressed and distressed owners of commercial real estate.

For starters, interest rates, which have been hovering at record lows, are expected to begin a slow but steady rise, possibly as soon as this month. This fear of rising rates has been a concern for the commercial real estate industry since the end of the financial crisis. The trigger, however, is finally going to be pulled, via the end of the Federal Reserve Bank’s controversial “quantitative easing” program, QE2, set for sometime in June.