The American Dream at Risk but Closed Loans Bring Some Holiday Cheer

The American Dream at Risk but Closed Loans Bring Some Holiday Cheer This week, we hope you’re ready to read about housing, because Commercial Observer goes deep inside America’s housing crisis to find out why the American Dream has never seemed so far away for so many first-time home buyers. We also have an in-depth interview with Department of Transportation’s second-in-command Polly Trottenberg, a talk with Wells Fargo’s real estate chief Richard Henderson, a big loan extension in Minneapolis, and a few juicy loans to round out the year. Dwight Mortgage Trust closed three deals this week alone, including a $93 million refinancing for a green energy multifamily in Mt. Vernon, New York. So follow us, dear reader, and find out all the most important CRE finance news of the past week. Who Turned The American Dream of Home Ownership Into a Nightmare? Between the 1930s and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the American Dream became inextricably linked to single-family home ownership. Today, as inflation declines from a 40-year high and interest rates remain at their steepest levels in decades, such ownership is now increasingly out of reach for millions of first-time buyers. [Read More](   Top Deals Of The Week   - Dwight Mortgage Trust Refis [Harlem]( Resi Tower With $100M Loan - Otera Capital Provides $93M Refi for [Green Energy]( Multifamily Development - Affinius Capital, Simmons Bank Provide $85M in Financing for [Arizona]( Multifamily - Dwight Mortgage Trust Supplies $75M [Construction Loan]( on Fort Myers Apartments - Berkadia Lends $37M on [Georgia]( Multifamily Apartment Community - Minneapolis’ Tallest Building Secures CMBS [Loan Extension](   Guest Column   NYC’s Multifamily Market Poised for Turnaround in 2024As we close out the year, based on some recent deal activity we are currently seeing, Lev Mavashev’s money is on 2024 being the year New York City multifamily turns the corner on this cycle. [Read More](   Q & A   U.S. DOT’s Polly Trottenberg on Congestion Pricing and Transit-Oriented The nation's No. 2 transit official discusses the country's planes, trains and automobiles and buses. [Read More](   People Moves   Redbrick’s Britt A. Snider Joins COPT Defense Properties as COO Real estate investment trust COPT Defense Properties has named Britt A. Snider as its new executive vice president and chief operating officer. The REIT focuses on owning, operating and developing properties in key government defense operations. [Read More](   Other Stories From This Week   Fed Presses Pause on Interest Rates Once Again to Close Out 2023 The Federal Reserve held short-term interest rates steady to close its 2023 calendar in a move that positions commercial real estate for a potential rebound in transaction volume next year, according to analysts. The central bank also signaled a forecast of three rate cuts in 2024. [Read More]( Senate, House Announce Workforce Housing Tax Credit Act A bipartisan group of senators and representatives in Washington, D.C., has introduced a new bill to encourage the construction of workforce housing for middle-income Americans. [Read More]( Wells Fargo Real Estate Head Richard Henderson On the Hudson Yards Move By 2026, some 2,300 new people from the San Francisco-based bank will be working at Hudson Yards in roughly 445,000 square feet overall that Wells Fargo will own rather than lease. The bank cut the deal for the space in September. [Read More]( Moody’s 2024 Forecast: Expect Low Transaction Volumes, Wave of Maturity Defaults A new investor report from Moody’s concluded that property values underlying commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) will remain strained under the pressure of high interest rates. [Read More]( NYC’s Commercial Brokers and Owners Look Back on a Terrible 2023 High interest rates, a depressed office market, and a steep decline in investment sales have all made it a challenging year for landlords and brokers, but CRE investors believe it’s a somewhat opportune time for office tenants and buyers with cash in hand. [Read More](   What We're Reading This Week   - Why [Treasury Auctions]( Have Wall Street on Edge [WSJ] - A [30-Year Trap](: The Problem With America’s Weird Mortgages [NYT] - When [Bond Yields]( Dropped, the Everything Rally Kicked Off [WSJ]   [View in Browser]( | [Advertise]( | [Forward to a Friend]( [Manage your email preferences or unsubscribe]( [Share your thoughts: Help us improve with our quick feedback survey!]( [Commercial Observer]( © Copyright 2023 [Observer Media]( 1 Whitehall Street, Floor 7, New York, NY 10004 This newsletter was published 12/14/2023