By Steven Marks, Fitch Ratings:

Office vacancies remain high, with a near-term peak likely, and the operating environment for office properties is unfavorable and figures to be for the foreseeable future. Despite these numerous credit negatives, Fitch Ratings’ outlook for office REITs is stable. The primary reason is that most office REITs have fared better than the market generally due to higher-quality portfolios and strong management and leasing teams.

By Richard Parent and David Thaw, Gumbiner & Savett Inc.:

On June 24, 2010, the Senate failed to pass the House-approved American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act (H.R. 4213), which was the legislation that, in part, proposed to change the way carried interest is taxed. Whether some version of the carried interest legislation will be voted on in the Senate this year is uncertain.

By Mindy Berman, Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.:

Finance, real estate and other corporate stakeholders must come to grips with the reality of emerging rules governing accounting for property leases.

By Bob Bach, Grubb & Ellis:

This last week before Labor Day, I have come down with a bad case of writer’s block. For inspiration, I turn to my friend and colleague, Glen Esnard, president of the capital markets group at Grubb & Ellis. About six weeks ago, when I last caught up with Glen, there was great concern in the equity and bond markets that the economy could be headed for a double-dip recession, and Glen wondered aloud whether commercial real estate investors might pull back as a consequence. But neither scenario has transpired, at least not yet.

The Lusk Center’s Richard Green blogs on CPE’s From the Inside about the future of financial services jobs and the impact on the commercial real estate property sectors.

The National Association of Realtors reports that its commercial real estate index, which measures the attitudes of more than 600 local market experts, rose just 2.8 percentage points to 41.0 in the second quarter. That’s well below the 100 mark, which represents a balanced market.

One of New Jersey’s largest nonprofit community organizations has a place to call home.

The price tag on the approximately 7.9 million-square-foot portfolio included Simon’s assumption of nearly $1.6 billion of existing debt and preferred stock.

Consumers went on a (very) small splurge in July, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, marked by a 0.4 percent increase in spending compared to June.