The value of problem CMBS loans in special servicing will hit $110 billion by the end of the year, Fitch Ratings estimates.

Jobs, jobs, jobs. On Tuesday, Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said that job-cut announcements in July rose 6 percent from June. It was the third month in a row that planned firings went up. The heaviest cutters these days are public and nonprofit entities, not private employers.

According to Fitch, the 133-basis-point climb from the first quarter is consistent with the firm’s expectation of an 11 percent cumulative default rate by the end of the year.

One-fifth of the CMBS loans scheduled to mature during the second half of 2010 are in special servicing, according to a mid-year analysis by Fitch Ratings.

Throughout the month, 44 office loans went delinquent, including 14 loans with a balance greater than $20 million.
The largest new delinquency was the $380 million Columbia Center loan, whose collateral is located in Seattle.

General Growth Properties Inc. has filed documents with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York describing its proposed deal with Brookfield Asset Management, Pershing Square Capital Management and Fairholme Capital Management.

The firm’s January Global Market Perspective contends that we have reached or are near the bottom — but that a slow recovery is at hand.