Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Wilbur Ross: Commercial Real Estate to Cause 'Tragedies'

Vulture investor Wilbur Ross is sure talking down the commercial real estate market.

He told CNBC this morning that:
Everything's going in the wrong direction and I think we're going to see quite a lot of tragedies in that sector...The same reckless lending that characterized the subprime mortgage business in residential was also characterizing what went on in commercial real estate in the mid 2000s.

"I don't think the federal government is going to do much to help the commercial building side, because individual home owners vote, but buildings don't vote," he said.

He did point out that the commercial market is about $3 trillion versus an $11 trillion residential market.

However, he failed to mention that Goldman Sachs doesn't appear to have any significant exposure to commercial real estate, so they won't be around muscling the government to prop it up. In fact, friends tell me they are probably net short CRE.

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