Odd Lots

Transcript: What Commercial Real Estate Stress Means for Banks and Bond Funds

Where two big macro themes intersect.

Office buildings in the financial district of New York, US, on Friday, Jan. 27, 2023.

Photographer: John Taggart/Bloomberg
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In the last month or so, two macro risks have become top of mind for investors. One is the stability of regional banks. The other is the weakness in the commercial real estate market. On some level, they're separate stories, but they're also linked, since regional banks tend to do more commercial real estate lending than larger, national banks. Of course, the links are complicated. CRE is not a monolith — and banks are just one source of financing for CRE projects, alongside private credit funds, insurance companies and other sources of capital. On this episode of the podcast, we speak with Jim Costello, chief economist for real assets at MSCI, about what to watch for. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.