Commercial Real Estate Links - 3/23/09

I was going through some information on Google Analytics (video on setting up your blog or website) for research on driving traffic and found out that my most loyal viewers want a return of the Monday morning Commercial Real Estate list:

1. The Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) was −2.83 in February, up from −3.74 in January. 

2. St. Louis - Bad loans rise more than 160% at St. Louis banks

3. Denver - Home sale prices show dip in Denver area for first two months of ’09

4. Winston/Salem - N.C. foreclosure program runs into ‘significant obstacles’

5. San Antonio - About 14 percent of San Antonio homes face negative equity, study shows

6. Sacramento - Business bankruptcies soar

7. Orlando - Business bankruptcies more than double in Central Florida

8. Bloomberg - U.S. banks brace for rising commercial loan defaults

9. Commercial Property News - Commercial Lending Up in 2008

10. Time Magazine - Banks need to overcome CRE debt glut

11. WSJ Online - General Growth in talks with Bondholders

12. Minneapolis - Real estate TIC boom has busted, players say

13. Dallas - It’s a buyer’s market with office leasing

CFNAI down to -2.57

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index was −2.57 in September, down from −1.61 in August. Most of the index's decline in September was driven by the steep drop in industrial production, as reflected in the contribution of the production and income category of indicators. However, all four broad categories of indicators made negative contributions to the index in September. 

The CFNAI is a weighted average of 85 existing monthly indicators of national economic activity. It is constructed to have an average value of zero and a standard deviation of one. Since economic activity tends toward trend growth rate over time, a positive index reading corresponds to growth above trend and a negative index reading corresponds to growth below trend.