Lending woes are spreading

In financial markets they are calling it a "mortgage contagion."

And indeed it appears the lending woes that started in the residential real estate market are infecting the commercial property sector.

That's bad news for anyone trying to buy or build everything from apartments to office buildings.

All we've heard for the last few years is about the billions of dollars of capital hunting a home in the commercial real estate market. So why are we now fretting about a credit crunch?

Well, the money's still out there, but it's going to be harder to get and cost more. For sure, that's a big problem if you are trying to close a commercial property deal.

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