Liquidity Crisis Could Hit Commercial Real Estate
Real Estate News: Real Estate Investing Podcast
Kathy Fettke / RealWealth
4.5 • 546 Ratings
🗓️ 23 March 2026
⏱️ 6 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A liquidity crunch may be building beneath the surface of the commercial real estate market—and most investors aren't paying attention.
In this episode, Kathy Fettke breaks down what liquidity is, why it matters, and how tightening credit conditions could impact real estate in 2026 and beyond. With billions in commercial loans coming due and lending standards tightening, refinancing is becoming more difficult and expensive.
You'll learn how reduced liquidity is affecting banks, private credit, and deal flow—and what it could mean for pricing, distressed opportunities, and your investment strategy.
🏠 ☀️ Want to come to our live event? Visit www.Realwealth.com/LAEvent to learn more.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There's a big issue building in the economy right now, and not many people are talking about it. |
| 0:05.2 | According to real estate investor and author Ken McElroy, that issue is liquidity. |
| 0:10.4 | I'm Kathy Fedke, and this is real estate news for investors. |
| 0:16.7 | This is Real Estate News with Kathy Fedke. |
| 0:21.4 | Before we jump into the show, I want to let you know about an event my company Real Wealth is hosting. |
| 0:27.1 | If you're looking at adding cash flowing turnkey rental properties to your portfolio, |
| 0:31.7 | consider joining Real Wealth's Passive Wealth Showcase in Manhattan Beach, California on April 25th. You'll meet vetted property |
| 0:39.2 | teams from Dallas, Oklahoma City, and Alabama, teams that come highly recommended by our over |
| 0:45.3 | 88,000 members at Real Wealth. You'll be able to see what deals they have. You'll be able to meet |
| 0:50.8 | their property management companies, and you'll get to hear my Q2 housing forecast. |
| 0:56.0 | To find out more, go to realwealth.com forward slash LA event to learn more. |
| 1:01.1 | Again, that's realwealth.com forward slash LA event. |
| 1:05.5 | And now back to the show. |
| 1:07.0 | Liquidity is simply how easy it is to turn something into cash. |
| 1:46.4 | Cash, of course, is fully liquid. Real estate is not. Stocks fall somewhere in between. When liquidity is strong, money flows. Banks lend. Deals get done. Prices tend to rise. But when liquidity tightens, everything slows down. Loans get harder to qualify for. Lenders become more cautious, and that pressure eventually shows up in real estate. And Ken says that's what we're starting to see right now. Over the past few years, the Federal Reserve has pulled a significant amount of money out of this system, about $2.3 trillion, through what they call quantitative tightening. |
| 1:52.0 | Even though that process has slowed down, there's still far less liquidity than during the boom years of 2020 and 2021. And now, signs of stress are starting to appear in commercial real estate, |
| 1:59.0 | especially in private credit markets that lend to commercial |
| 2:02.4 | real estate investors. |
| 2:04.5 | Some of the biggest firms in the world are feeling it. |
| 2:07.3 | Blackstone recently saw billions of dollars in investor withdrawal requests from one of |
| 2:11.4 | its major lending funds. |
| 2:13.3 | Black Rock had to limit withdrawals from another large fund, and Blue Owl Capital has stopped |
... |
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