Washington Mutual customers checking their failed bank’s Web site this morning were greeted with a welcome from the thrift’s new owner, JPMorgan Chase, which assured customers that their deposits were safe and banks would operate as usual today. It was another twist in the ongoing financial soap opera playing out in Washington, D.C., and across America as WaMu customers learned the 119-year-old, Seattle-based bank had been seized by the federal Office of Thrift Supervision and sold to JPMorgan Chase Thursday for the fire-sale price of $1.9 billion. With $307 billion in assets, it was the largest bank failure in history,…

Last night’s hubbub at the White House over the Wall Street bailout seems to have quieted down somewhat today, with various dissatisfied parties returning to negotiations, but still nothing has been settled. Leaders of both parties have announced that they will keep Congress in session until some kind of deal is worked out. The Dow Jones Industrial Average initially dropped this morning as investors drank their coffee and mused about a financial apocalypse, which not only led to lower stock prices, but also a lower trading volume. The index rallied in the afternoon, led by JP Morgan, up about 1…

The UCLA Anderson forecast has released a statement that claims that the United States economy is not technically in a recession. Citing data from the second quarter of 2008 that showed the gross domestic product had increased by 3.3 percent, the forecast states that the nation is not in a recession by the definition set forth by the National Bureau of Economic Research, but is quick to realize that the economy is “stalled.” The forecast predicts that third quarter GDP growth will be 1 percent in the third quarter followed by a fourth quarter GDP growth of essentially zero. The…

Recognizing that the healthcare industry continues to grow despite a weakened economy, Dallas-based RM Crowe acquired a 60,000-square-foot medical facility in Bettendorf, Iowa, as part of its $50 million fund to pursue health care real estate opportunities nationwide. RM Crowe anticipates utilizing this fund to acquire approximately $150 million worth of new product over the next six to nine months. The company acquired the Terrace Park Professional Center in Bettendorf, Iowa. The on-campus medical office building is the first acquisition of the fund to pursue health care real estate opportunities nationwide. Terrace Park Professional Center is a state-of-the-art, medical office…

Total collections for suburban office complexes nationwide in 2007 dipped less than 1 percent from 2006 levels to $19.31 per square foot of net rentable area, whereas those for downtown properties increased 3.1 percent to $19.85 per square foot. Total actual collections for downtown properties were 2.8 percent more last year than their suburban counterparts, according to the 2008 edition of the Income/Expense Analysis: Office Buildings, a new benchmarking study published by the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM).The annual report analyzed operating income and costs for 1,549 private-sector office complexes–some containing multiple buildings–in major metropolitan areas and regions in…

The day after President Bush went to the airwaves to ask the nation for $700 billion, he planned to meet with the two men who would be his successor. No word as yet what, if anything, would come of this meeting. The president warned of a “long and painful recession”–that is, a depression–if Congress doesn’t act immediately.Not everyone in Congress is so sure about that, and neither are the American people for that matter, and the push continues for changes in the plan suggested by the administration, such as an equity stake for the government in companies that it bails…