A weekend topic starting with Bloomberg. "Property investors are about to discover just how much the global fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has spread from deserted and cast-off buildings to their bottom lines. In an estimated $10 trillion global pool of properties held for investment purposes, the industry’s main sources of capital -- pension funds and insurance firms -- count on the steady income to pay for their own long-term commitments."

"'That’s the key rationale for buying real estate. Most landlords are in effect pension and insurance funds and ultimately that’s who is going to be paying for it,' said Adrian Benedict, head of real-estate solutions at Fidelity International in London. 'If the whole central tenet of security of income is undermined through this crisis, you are storing up a world of trouble.'"

From CNBC. "Mike Carpenter, 35, has struggled to collect benefits in Pennsylvania since losing his job in the spring. Without income, Carpenter, who lives in Philadelphia, drained savings and could barely pay bills for a half year, he said. He took on debt to finance basic needs. This week, his car was repossessed. He lost his apartment and has been staying with a friend. 'It wrecked my credit,' said Carpenter, who had been a superintendent for a luxury apartment builder. 'I lost pretty much everything.'"

From National Public Radio. "Today on the show, small businesses, rent and the road to bankruptcy - we find out what happened to Daniella's day spa and what the small business rent crisis could mean for an economic recovery. Daniella Stromberg - she's the owner of d'mai Urban Spa in Brooklyn, N.Y. She's had the place for years. In September, Daniella received a final offer from her landlord. It was two months of half-off rent. STROMBERG: What does two months mean? What's the relevance of that? What did he think was happening in two months? Like, that's just magic thinking. Like, it meant nothing.'"

"This was it. Daniella was at the end of her rope. She told her landlord she would be out by the end of the month. And then she called each of her 34 employees. Daniella's spa is one of more than 100,000 small businesses estimated to have closed this year. When a business closes, it's still on the hook for the money it owes. Some business owners like Daniella file for bankruptcy as a way to deal with their outstanding debts."

"Kate Waldock is an economist who specializes in corporate bankruptcy. She says when a business closes, it sets off a chain of reactions that ripples through the economy. First, the business owner stops paying their landlord. 'Then the landlord isn't making any money. And chances are, you know, since we're still in the middle of the pandemic, it's really bad right now, they probably can't lease that space to a new tenant. And so it's probably sitting empty. And so all of a sudden, the landlord can't make mortgage payments to the bank.'"

"And then the bank is in trouble, says Kate, because it was counting on money coming in from the small business and from the landlord."

The Associated Press. "The exodus of downtown workers has been devastating for neighborhood restaurants like Forlini’s, a Chintatown fixture since 1956 popular with lawyers and judges who work in lower Manhattan. Derek Forlini, who inherited the business from his father and now runs it with a cousin, used to relish chatting up customers in the dining room. But the lunchtime crowds never came back."

"Forlini and his cousin have recently been forgoing their own salaries to keep paying the staff. 'Manhattan is ghost town,' Forlini said. 'Nobody’s working — they all went to Zoom. And then there are people who just won’t come to restaurants. I know if we reopen, we’ll be working for nothing again.'"

"'We’re not going back to the same economy,' Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told a European Central Bank forum last month. 'We’re recovering, but to a different economy.'"

From Bisnow Boston. "The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will scale back its subway and bus service next year, affecting the public transportation arteries into downtown Boston. Systemwide cuts including commuter rail and ferry service are part of the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board’s response to the coronavirus pandemic's devastating impact on transit demand. The reductions target small savings as an early Band-Aid before more drastic cuts are expected next year."

"The cuts are another blow to small businesses in downtown Boston like Ogawa Coffee on Milk Street, which has experienced drastically lower foot traffic after months of office workers operating from home. 'Our business level right now is definitely not sustainable for another year,' Ogawa Coffee Manager Chris Marinuzzi said. 'It’s not sustainable even right now.'"

"The shop needs workers to return to the Financial District sooner than later, Marinuzzi said. 'That’s what we’re banking on right now,' Marinuzzi said. 'But I guess, there’s also the question of, like, will they ever come back in full?'"

From Wisconsin Public Radio. "This week, Gina Mahnke received a notice in the mail telling her she’ll be evicted from her home when the federal moratorium that has been protecting her is lifted at the end of the month. Mahnke wasn’t surprised. She rents a townhouse in Greendale for $1,225 a month, where she lives with her mother, 15-year-old daughter and 12-year-old nephew. 'There is nothing to do, we have nowhere to go,' Mahnke said. 'I’ve just been waiting for answers that I’m never going to get.'"

"Lyn Bradley has owned eight properties in Milwaukee for eight years. She bought them from her parents, who live in Brookfield. Bradley is a single-mother who lives in California. She said for the last nine months, she has barely slept, worrying about tenants not paying their rent. Now, she’s in the process of selling all but one of her properties."

"Bradley said she understands the difficult position people are in, but she can’t support other families. 'I’m terrified because I don’t know what I’m going to do for money, but I can’t continue to hemorrhage money either,' Bradley said. 'It puts a lot of people in a bad position. And they are talking about extending this moratorium for another year — to me that is unconscionable.'"

From KGW 8 in Oregon. "Advocates for landlords and property owners in Oregon told state lawmakers Thursday night they’ll do anything they can to keep tenants, struggling amid the pandemic, in their units, but a proposal to help cover some of the debt renters owe forces those landlords to forfeit too much income. The bill proposes setting aside $150 million to pay Oregon landlords up to 80% of what they're owed by struggling renters. However, landlords would have to forgive the other 20%. Forgiving 20% of rent owed for almost a year, as it would be if the moratorium is extended by six months as the bill proposes, is too large of an ask, according to Jason Miller, the legislative director of the Oregon Rental Housing Association."

"'Often housing providers operate on slim margins with net profits below 20%,' said Miller. 'Some housing providers have needed to borrow money or defer payments to stay afloat and avoid foreclosure or bankruptcy. Housing providers are acquiring interest and late fees on top of missed payments and borrowed money, adding to the compounding debt that they will eventually have to pay.'"

The San Jose Spotlight in California. "Apartment rent prices in San Jose are falling, but that might not do a whole lot to help renters struggling to make ends meet in the pandemic-slammed local economy. Much of that decline is due to a fall in occupancy levels in the higher-end portion of the apartment market, said Doug Ressler, a senior analyst at Yardi Systems. Meanwhile, rents are more stable in lower-end properties, because there aren’t enough to meet the increased demand for less expensive apartments, said Matthew Reed, policy manager at Silicon Valley at Home, a nonprofit affordable housing advocacy group."

"'The difference between Class A luxury apartments and the experience that they’ve been having in terms of vacancy rates and rents going down is very different than a still relatively tight bottom-ended market where lower-income folks have not seen the same level of decreases of rent,' Reed said. 'That’s a real concern because that’s where the economic hardship is greatest.'"

"Rent prices will likely continue to decline as long as the local economy remains depressed, he said. But that’s not likely to be of much comfort to those hardest hit by the pandemic, said Joshua Howard, a spokesman for the California Apartment Association. 'Declining rents alone won’t address the issues facing renters who have been unable to pay their rent due to COVID nor help landlords struggling to pay their own bills after months without rental income from tenants financially affected by the pandemic,' he said."

The Los Angeles Times in California. "Hundreds of thousands of Californians dropped out of the workforce in November as businesses sharply curtailed the pace of hiring — trends that economists suggest are growing ever more dire. But the jobless rate counts only people who are actively looking for work. Economists said November’s drop reflected a massive exodus of Californians from the labor force: 327,600 who had stopped seeking employment."

"Job postings in California are down 23% since January, and small-business openings and revenue are both down 28%, according to Opportunity Insights, an economic research group based at Harvard University. In the first two weeks of December, more than 380,000 Californians filed new unemployment claims. The state accounted for more than a fifth of U.S. claims, despite having just 11% of the nation’s civilian labor force."

"'California is falling further behind the rest of the nation in employment,' said Michael Bernick, a former director of the California Employment Development Department who tracks jobs data. 'No government program at this point will turn around hiring until the schools reopen, businesses reopen, and immunization is widely achieved.'"

From KELO in South Dakota. "There was no surprise in the November finances for entertainment tax and lodging tax receipts in the city, Sioux Falls Financial Director Shawn Pritchett said. Both were down in the 12-month rolling average and in October from October 2019, Pritchett said in his financial presentation to the city council on Dec. 15. October activity is shown in November receipts. The rolling 12-month average for lodging tax receipts decreased by 24.1% and by 32.1% for October compared to October 2019, Pritchett said."

"Pritchett said he expected downturns to continue into next month. The downturn in hospitality industry, which includes lodging, could last longer, he said. Hotel occupancy rate in the U.S. is down 37.90% over last year as of Dec. 5. Domestic air travel was down by 65.8% from last year."

"During an economic forecast report on Dec. 16, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said service businesses, including bars and hotels were still struggling in the U.S. The progress of the vaccinations will impact the economy but by how much and how quickly is yet uncertain, Powell said. '(Perhaps) by the middle of next year people will feel comfortable about going out (to bar, etc),' he said."