In Depth Analysis: CalculatedRisk Newsletter on Real Estate (Ad Free) Read it here.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Fed: Large banks ease lending standards slightly, demand still weak

by Calculated Risk on 8/16/2010 02:18:00 PM

From the Fed: July 2010 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices

The July survey indicated that, on net, banks had eased standards and terms over the previous three months on loans in some categories, particularly those categories affected by competitive pressures from other banks or from nonbank lenders. While the survey results suggest that lending conditions are beginning to ease, the improvement to date has been concentrated at large domestic banks. Most banks reported that demand for business and consumer loans was about unchanged.
...
[commercial real estate] In the July survey, most respondents reported no change in their bank's standards for approving commercial real estate loans.
...
[residential real estate] On net, a small fraction of domestic banks reported having eased standards on prime residential mortgage loans; the few respondents that had eased standards were all large banks. The increase in demand over the past few months for prime residential mortgage loans reported by several respondents to the current survey marked a reversal of the net weakening of demand for such loans reported in the April survey.
On residential real estate the pickup in demand was over the last three months (tax credit related) - just wait until Q3.