By Paul Donsky
Even as many Georgia banks grapple with bad residential real estate loans, experts say a new danger lurks: a deteriorating market for shopping centers, office buildings and other commercial property.
Most of Georgia’s 300 small, community-based banks have relatively light exposure to these kinds of loans, experts say, allowing them to watch the coming crisis from the sidelines.
But for banks already in trouble, commercial real estate losses will deepen the pain, said Jeff Davis, a banking analyst with FTN Equity Capital Markets Corp.