That sound you're hearing may just be the commercial real-estate market in free fall, writes Russ Britt.

Mall owner General Growth Properties on Thursday filed for bankruptcy protection, saying it couldnâ??t reach an out-of-course consensus on restructuring its mounting debt pile.

Is That Recovery We See? This week the market seemed to like financial stocks and was buoyed on news that Pulte Homes (PHA) would buy Centex (CTX) to create the largest US homebuilder. And with banks having some room to adjust their writedowns as mark-to-market is modified the market saw significant increases in the financial sector. Everywhere I keep hearing the old saw that the market predicts a recovery about 6 months out so won't we see a recovery in the fourth quarter of 2009? See also: Housing Optimism is a House of Cards If you look at earnings estimates ...

With the IShares DJ US Real Estate (IYR) up 50% from the March 6 lows I'm not the only bear on commercial real estate (CRE) wondering whether this sector has seen its worst days and is ready for a comeback. To try to answer that question it may be useful to review how the majority of CRE deals in the last 5 years were put together. I wrote in Small-Cap Recap: What's Behind Real Estate Cap Rates?:“As late as 10 years ago institutional investors had investment time frames of 5-10 years; today they are looking out 2-5 years at ...

More pink slips means emptier office parks, and that's one more bit of bad news for the U.S. banking sector.

NOTE TO EDITORS: The Following Is an Investment Opinion Being Issued by Maybach

NOTE TO EDITORS: The Following Is an Investment Opinion Being Issued by WallStSense.com