The vanishing shopping mall - THE WEEK: "Enclosed shopping centers, long the cathedrals of American consumerism, are closing their doors by the hundreds as the recession continues to clobber retail sales. Is America’s love affair with the mall over?"
-------------
I think this is overstated, but I just looked at retail sales tax data for Lake County, IL, where I live. Holy recession, Batman. The decline in revenues to cities is astounding, and the number of businesses that have closed their doors is terrifying. And it will get worse before it gets better. As noted here earlier, there is about to be a foreclosure crisis in commercial real estate. It will be accelerated by Alt-A mortgages resetting their interest rates upward over the next 9 months or so. Alt-A is a bit better than subprime, and a lot of those mortgages are for commercial real estate. If a business is losing money, letting the bank take the building is less painful than losing the house you live in.
No comments:
Post a Comment