Manhattan Office Vacancies Rise the Most in Three Years

Manhattan’s office vacancy rate jumped the most since 2009, when the market was reeling from the U.S. credit crisis, as financial companies cut jobs and tenants held back from taking space amid concern the economy will slow.

The rate reached 9.6 percent in the third quarter, an increase of 0.6 percentage points from the previous three months, Cushman & Wakefield Inc., a New York-based commercial real estate services firm, said in a report today. That was the biggest jump since the third quarter of 2009, when the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and its aftermath spurred a surge in vacancies in the largest U.S. office market.

The recent increase in empty space reflects job cuts in banking and finance, the city’s biggest private office-using industry, according toKen McCarthy, senior economist at Cushman. Financial-services companies eliminated about 9,600 jobs in New York from May to August, he said in an interview, citing data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Read more >>

The trillion dollar bailout you didn’t hear about

Commercial real estate values plummet again yet banks hide losses. A $3.5 trillion financial disaster in the making. We are now proud owners of an AMC theater and Chick-fil-A.

The latest data on existing home sales should tell you exactly where we are in this so called recovery. Average Americans are unable to purchase big ticket items without massive government subsidies. It is also the case that all the too big to fail banks are standing only because of the generous support of taxpayer money. Without large tax credits and the Federal Reserve buying down mortgage rates the housing market is extremely weak. Yet very few of the housing “analysts” actually bother to ask why they are weak in the first place. The employment market is in disarray and wages have fallen for everyone outside of the top 1 percent of income earners. The bailout fatigue is running out of steam but banks are using clandestine methods to offload trillions of dollars of commercial real estate to taxpayers. The next giant bailout is already happening but you probably haven’t heard about it.

For the latest month of data prices fell an additional 4 percent. Now this is coming at a seasonal time when real estate values usually see price increases. But people are pulling back and spending less money on discretionary items. This is happening for a couple of reasons including the fact that wages have been stagnant for over a decade and the underemployment rate is still near peak levels. Commercial real estate in places like Las Vegas has crashed because who is out buying million dollar condos in this market? Very few and that is why you are seeing many places having vacancy rates of 50, 60, or even 70 percent. More...

Jim Sinclair: "This Is It!"

Jim Sinclair
This is not a dress rehearsal.

This is the real thing, and has been since you received the email titled "This Is It!"

Take a look at the following list of news topics:

-Tishman Real Estate to miss payment on a commercial loan of over $5 billion on a massive New York apartment complex, the 2nd largest default in commercial real estate loans in history.
-California declares an economic emergency.
-Employment figures stink.
-Apartment vacancies hit record highs.
-Foreclosures are setting new records.
-Consumer credit in the US drops a record $17.5 billion.

All of this is what we have gotten from OTC derivatives and a financial industry bailout of unprecedented proportion.

QE MUST go to Infinity. Talk about the Fed draining is an insult even to Mr. Fred’s intelligence.

The US dollar is toast. Gold is headed to $1650 – $1764 now.

Remember, at $1764 1,000,000 mineable ounces of gold in production will have a gross worth $1,764,000,000.

That is real money. That is honest money.