Like many of you, I have been wondering when the long bull market in commercial real estate would begin to unravel. Well, the signs of distress are all around us now. Check out these news stories from this year:

On 25 January, GlobeSt reported that the largest owner of apartments in San Francisco, a joint venture between Veritas Investments and Baupost Group, had defaulted on a $448 million (€418 million) CMBS loan secured by 62 properties encompassing more than 1,700 units. On 16 February, Commercial Observer reported that a $270.3 million (€252.3 million) CMBS loan on a Manhattan 11-property multifamily portfolio owned by Blackstone had been sent to special servicing. On 8 March, Commercial Observer ran another story noting that, in the depth of winter, Brookfield — the largest office owner in downtown Los Angeles — defaulted on major property holdings worth a combined $784 million (€732 million). “Within days,” the Observer reported, �