Did Treasury Get As Good a Deal as Warren Buffet? Could Downtown Real Estate Prices Torpedo Your Town - Or Be the Next Big Opportunity?

Two stories that will take only a couple of minutes, but you must read today:

1) Last week in our futures calendar - Next Week New's Today - we flagged that the Congressional Oversight Panel for Economic Stabilization's report to Congress was due today. There are a number of great writes today but we like the New York Times' Diana Henriques' report because it lays out the Panel's concern that Treasury's stock purchases in financial institutions at times didn't land the same excellent terms as private investors.

Here's why you care: The story shows that your tax dollars will not get as good of a return as say Warren Buffet or investors from the Persian Gulf buying shares in the same institutions. Also, the report challenges Treasury to explain why they are not embracing the FDIC's proposal to refinance homeowner mortgages currently underwater. We say, call on us, we think we have the answer - in fact explaining that debate is what we posted this past Friday 12/5 - check it out right here.

2) Commercial real estate impacts you in ways you may not think... The New York Times (again) has a must read story by Terry Pristin who reports how vacancies are looming large for downtown commercial space. The reason being is because like homeowners with adjustable mortgages, many of these investors have loans due and were only paying interest on them.

Here's why you care: If you own an apartment or townhouse in an urban area you don't want commercial vacancies, not just because you moved to the city for convenience, but because ultimately it could take down your home value. That said, you care if you are a company doing okay because it means you may be able to negotiate a terrific new lease where you are, or elsewhere. You need to be reading this story. We can tell you, this is what we've been discussing as real estate and finance lawyers. You should be thinking about this as well. One note, Pristin's article uses the term "Special Receiver" - don't worry, it is pretty much what you think. A Special Receiver is essentially a neutral third party that a court can look to for unbiased guidance as to whether the borrower that is behind in payments is keeping to the workout promise. The Special Receiver is a neutral intermediary for the borrower to send the money to, allowing the lender to get a report and payments from the Special Receiver instead of spending time constantly asking the borrower for an update.