NAR shifts focus to commercial market

Secure in the knowledge that the first-time homebuyer tax credit will live on, at least through April 2010, the National Association of Realtors has shifted its focus to salvaging the troubled commercial real estate industry, according to MarketWatch. Jerry Giovaniello, senior vice president at NAR, said that the commercial market was going to become a priority for his group, as concerns over the fraught industry mount. “The commercial area is something that is going to be in the news more and more, as loans are rolled over and need to be refinanced,” Giovaniello said. His group plans to lobby for more flexible lending standards, according to Giovaniello, in the hopes that it can get federal agencies “out of that overreaction mode.”