CRE

Wow, the whole issue of the downtown parking lot on Greenwood and Wall came and went before I could even comment on it.

I actually probably would have given them the extension, myself. I don't think it's going to be that easy to sell again, but I could be wrong.

I understood why they wanted to wait, but the reasoning that the property value might have gone down, and therefore Bend should relent, struck a little hollow. It's not as if they would've come back to the city of Bend and said, "Oh, the property is worth more, now, so we're going to pay extra."

I'll be interested to see if it sells again.

Nationally, the Commercial Real Estate market is beginning to show real weakness, and by the end of the year I think we'll be hearing a lot more about it. Bend, of course, will follow half a year or so later. Already there has been an article about too much office space in Bend. Still, many of the boutique sized locations continue to rent or sell. I noticed the signs were off Boomtown, for instance. A couple others on Greenwood. And I suspect that almost no reasonably sized space in downtown will go unrented for long. Still plenty of people moving to Bend and opening business.

I may think it's a bit unwise, but it's in my best interest to see them keep coming and keeping up the illusion and spending their equity here.

When I go to sites like Calculated Risk, and they talk about CRE, there are usually a pitifully few comments, compared to housing and banks. Just not a sexy subject for most people.

My sales have been really really good over the last two weeks. If this is the way summer is going to be -- well, that would be fantastic. But I'm going to stick to my budgeting guns, anyway. I can always ramp up the spending later.