By Floyd Norris | The New York Times
The commercial real estate market, particularly for offices, has turned upward this year, with banks saying that they have reduced lending standards at the same time that demand for mortgage loans has risen.
The Federal Reserve Board reported this week that 21.9 percent of banks surveyed last month said they had eased credit standards for commercial real estate loans in the third quarter of this year, while only 2.7 percent reported tighter standards.
As can be seen from the accompanying charts, the net loosening figure of 19.9 percent was down a bit from the second quarter but otherwise was the highest such figure since 2005, when the real estate bubble was still inflating. At the same time, more banks reported rising demand for commercial real estate loans than at any time since 1998.
