In one year, commercial real estate has seen both a drop in prices and a doubling up in delinquency rates, research analytics firms tracking the market find. Price values are down to nearly half the levels seen at the peak of the market, while the risk of default is rising and the commercial real estate foreclosure book continues to add pages.

The brokers I have been touring with are also clueless, or they are in denial. They are in for a tough road ahead.

The future remains uncertain. The economy needs to revive to this sector to come back.

Over the next five years, experts contend that more and more Americans will choose renting over buying a house. Between now and 2015, economic growth is expected to be slow and moderate at a time when looser lending standards and fraud have been reduced and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have become more diligent about the mortgages they buy from banks and lenders. Additionally, age distribution among households will favor younger adults, which generally causes a decline in homeownership rates. Moreover, as many younger adults return to college and graduate programs, their debt levels get higher and their ability to sustain mortgages declines. A combination of poor housing policy, demographics, and economic conditions likely will curb growth in the homeownership rate -- actually causing it to decline to 64 percent by 2015 -- but the rental rate is expected to rise to 36 percent by 2015.

Without the home buyer tax credit, house sales have declined significantly, but the apartment rental market has remained strong even without federal assistance. Effective rents, according to Axiometrics, climbed 3.2 percent following declines in 2008 and 2009, and occupancy growth continues to remain positive. Axiometrics President Ronald Johnsey notes that job growth must be stronger than officially reported because apartment rental rates are rising. Apartments will continue to be the housing of choice among younger households, and investors will see share prices for real-estate investment trusts specializing in apartments rise as the market "turns the corner," which many expect to last for a while.

My good friend, Gary Gorman owns and runs one of the largest 1031 tax deferred exchange companies. www.expert1031.com. Over the years I have spoken to him about this industry. It is VERY important that you understand this is a largely unregulated business. If you find yourself in need of a 1031 company be sure to educate yourself with who is holding your money and use a reputable company.

MIT economist Parag Pathak and two Harvard researchers, John Y. Campbell and Stefano Giglio, have conducted a study to put a price tag on foreclosures. The three academia colleagues examined 1.8 million home sales in Massachusetts from 1987 to 2009. By looking in granular detail at real estate prices, they concluded that a foreclosure reduces the value of a house by 27 percent, on average. These foreclosures drive down home prices, and MIT gives two reasons for their depreciating effect -- because foreclosed homes add to the housing supply and because the financial firms that acquire the houses want to unload them promptly.

"The Fed is saying it is going to use every tool in its toolbox to help support the recovery," says David Rifkind, managing director of Los Angeles-based real estate investment banking firm George Smith Partners. "It was a conservative, measured and clear statement. That's exactly what the market needed to hear."

Typically the Fed limits its interest rate changes to short-term rates that it sets directly, including the Fed funds rate, which banks use to charge for overnight lending. But this week the Federal Open Markets Committee left the Fed funds rate unchanged at less than 1% and announced a plan to hold down long-term interest rates. The Fed intends to reinvest the payments of principal it receives on its extensive portfolio of mortgage-backed securities and government debt, buying up additional U.S. Treasury bonds to maintain its current level of investment.

Treasury bonds and CMBS Since early 2009, the Fed has purchased some $1.25 trillion in mortgage securities, $175 billion in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage debt, and $300 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds in an effort to boost liquidity and stimulate the economy with price stability. By rolling over those investments into Treasuries, the Fed will keep the supply of available bonds in check and thereby keep interest rates near their historic lows. The 10-year Treasury yield, an important benchmark for long-term lending, fell to a 16-month low of 2.74% after the Fed's announcement and ended the day at 2.79%, down from 2.86% on Monday.

Beyond the obvious effect of keeping borrowing costs down, the Fed's move will give commercial real estate and commercial mortgage-backed securities a shot in the arm by suppressing yields on competing fixed-income investments, Rifkind says.

"Fixed-income investors are going to be looking at new CMBS as a viable investment opportunity," he says. "There is going to be competition for yield among the fixed-income investors that is going to make real estate securities attractive. We've already seen that with the JP Morgan pool that went out successfully (in June) and the Goldman Sachs pool last week." In June, JP Morgan Chase Commercial Mortgage Securities Corp. closed a $716.3 million CMBS issue, primarily backed by retail properties. Early this month, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup unveiled a $788.5 million issue that is the largest CMBS deal announced so far this year.

Coup for confidence The Fed's statement this month sought to ease fears of a double-dip recession by showing that the government remains vigilant to keep the economy on an upward track, according to Robert Bach, chief economist at commercial real estate services firm Grubb & Ellis.

Consumers and businesses needed reassuring following two months of disappointing jobs reports. Private-sector payroll employment rose by 71,000 in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but that couldn't offset a wave of government job cuts that resulted in a net loss of 131,000 payroll jobs for the month. That drop follows the loss of 221,000 nonfarm payrolls in June.

Knowing that the Fed is working to invigorate the economy is especially helpful right now while political differences on Capitol Hill make it unlikely that Congress will enact further economic stimulus measures anytime soon, Bach says. Some lawmakers support new stimulus spending, some are bent on reducing taxes, and others are more concerned about controlling the deficit and oppose both stimulus spending and tax cuts.

"Between those three groups, there's not enough of a consensus to act," Bach says. The Fed's statement is "a recognition that Congress is unlikely to do anything dramatic in the way of stimulus. The Fed is the only player in town right now."

Will the double-dip recession materialize? Bach doesn't think so. Taken as a whole, the economy is on the slow expansion track he forecast more than a year ago when he projected the addition of 1 million jobs in 2010. Despite the recent monthly losses, the private sector has 630,000 more jobs today than it did at the first of the year, according to the labor department.

The economy has gained enough momentum to avoid relapsing into a recession, Bach points out, but it's nice to know that the Fed acknowledges the recent slowdown and is taking action. "The economy that looked so promising earlier in the year has not proven itself to be self-sustaining," he says. "The Fed is putting the training wheels back on."

The Olmstead decision allows Florida courts to order a judgment debtor to surrender all right, title and interest in the debtor's single member Florida LLC to satisfy a judgment. Prior to the ruling many had believed that Florida law provided that the charging order was the exclusive creditor remedy.

Not anymore.

Multi member Florida LLC owners should be very concerned by this decision. Writing a dissent in the 3-2 decision Justice Lewis warned that the Olmstead ruling means that the charging order is a non exclusive remedy for all LLCs, whether single or multi member.

Justice Lewis wrote: "The majority opinion now eliminates the charging order remedy for multi member LLCs under its theory of "non-exclusivity" which is a disaster for those entities."

If you are using a Florida LLC to protect your assets you may want to reconsider your state of formation. Wyoming allows LLCs to easily reform themselves into Wyoming. The continuance process allows a Florida LLC to reorganize in Wyoming and keep the same formation date, EIN number and credit history. The advantage is that you now have a Wyoming LLC, which expressly recognizes the charging order as the exclusive remedy. Our office charges $750 plus filing fees to continue LLCs to the better asset protection state of Wyoming. Please call 1-800-600-1760 for more information.

And remember, asset protection is an ever changing area of the law. The Olmstead case was decided in a way that allowed another government agency -- The Federal Trade Commission -- to collect. Of course, the case now applies to the benefit of all creditors. In a dynamic field it is important to stay current on the latest cases, and move accordingly.