38 S C T / J u l y 2 0 1 5
n March the Federal reserve Board indicated
that it was likely to raise interest rates at some point later in the year.
With the economy improving but still fragile, the Fed suggested, the
idea was to ease back to interest-rate normality (short-term rates have
been near zero for at least six years).
I
all eYes on the Fed
While the prospect of a federal interest-rate hike Worries some,
others VieW it as an encouraging sign of a recoVering economy
By Steve Bergsman
"We have been in a long period of Fed easing and treasury buybacks to keep
interest rates low so that the country could get growth back," said Michael Phillips, a
principal of cincinnati-based Phillips edison & co. "interest rates have been artifi-
cially low for quite a while, so you probably would get considerable agreement that in
order for the market to not get overheated, we need some increase in the interest-
rate environment over time."
considerable agreement there may be, perhaps, but total agreement hardly at
all. First, not everyone in the commercial real estate industry believes that interest