A monthly briefing for Michigan commercial real estate attorneys, lenders, brokers, and investors.
CRE Market and Deal Pulse
Fed Holds at 3.75-4.00%, and the Market Is Pricing a December Hike
The Fed left the target range at 3.75% to 4.00% on Oct. 28, with Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland's Beth Hammack dissenting in favor of a quarter-point increase. The 10-year closed near 5.02%, and futures put roughly 85% odds on a hike at the Dec. 8-9 meeting. If you're sizing debt on anything closing in Q1, price December into the rate-lock conversation now.
Source: Kiplinger, Oct. 28, 2026
Emerging Trends 2027: Capital Is Available, It Just Costs More
ULI and PwC released Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2027 on Oct. 27. Deficits and higher Treasury yields are raising the competition for real estate capital, higher rates are expected to persist, and distress stays concentrated rather than system-wide - with maturities and liquidity pressure forcing transactions that otherwise wouldn't happen. Industrial may benefit from a shrinking pipeline; office and life sciences stay challenged.
Source: PwC and ULI, Oct. 27, 2026
Detroit Industrial Swung Back to Positive Absorption in the Third Quarter
CBRE put metro Detroit industrial net absorption at 855,000 square feet in Q3, with 4.12 million square feet of leasing in deals of 10,000 feet or more and big-box space driving 84.9% of it. Asking rents stabilized near $7.88, and 2.06 million square feet is under construction across ten projects, 45.5% pre-leased. Demand is concentrating in modern big-box product.
Transaction Spotlight
Details anonymized to protect client confidentiality.
Two cannabis farms in northeast Michigan, each separately owned, closed together. The friction was access and minerals, not price. Access to the land was indirect, so it was insured through an access easement instead of being left as an exception, and the file required a mineral surface rights endorsement. The cannabis use sat on top of both. All three are diligence items, not closing-week items.
CRE Title and Closing Insight
Closing a Workout or Receivership Sale When the Deal Has to Move Fast
When the seller is a receiver or a lender working out a maturing loan, the first question is not what the deed says - it is what the court authorized. A receiver's power to sell comes from the appointing order and any amendments to it, not from the purchase agreement, and Michigan's Uniform Commercial Real Estate Receivership Act lets a receiver convey free and clear of liens with court approval. But the order actually has to say so, and the notice and approval steps have to be followed. If they are not, the buyer owns a title problem that nobody can fix later, because the defect is in the authority rather than the chain. Alongside that, check whether a foreclosure is pending, whether any redemption period is still running, and who the junior lienholders are, because a sale that strips their interests only works if they were given the notice the act requires.
The practical move is to put the appointment order, the sale motion, and the proposed order in front of the title company at the start, not the week of closing. Expect the policy to turn on the entered order approving the sale plus proof that notice went out, which means the closing date is driven by the court's calendar rather than the parties'. Two other things reliably eat the timeline. First, a receiver will usually not give you ordinary seller representations or a title affidavit, so the gap between the last search and recording, and any construction lien exposure, has to be solved with documentation and a holdback rather than a promise. Second, unpaid property taxes, municipal and special assessments, and water and sewer charges survive the sale in ways a distressed owner has rarely tracked - get the payoff and tax figures ordered the day the agreement is signed. If the asset is mid-construction, add the contractor payment history to that list before anyone commits to a funding date.
Sources: Michigan Uniform Commercial Real Estate Receivership Act, MCL 554.1011 et seq. (Act 16 of 2018)
From Dave's Desk
Higher-for-longer stopped being a forecast and became the environment, and the Emerging Trends read lines up with it: the money is there, it just costs more than the pro forma assumed. That pressure shows up first at maturity, which is why this month's insight is about closings that have to move on somebody else's calendar.
I'm helping put together the title insurance panel for the ICSC+LAW Symposium covering Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania, and the committee meets again on Nov. 4. If there's a closing-side issue you want argued in front of that room, send it my way. I'll also be at the RPLS council meeting in Troy on the 18th.
-- Dave
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When you need title and closing services for a Michigan commercial transaction - acquisition, refinance, development, or workout - we handle the complexity from commitment through closing. Reach out for a quote, a pre-deal title walk-through, or a second set of eyes on a commitment you've already received.
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About Midwest Title and Dave Nykanen
Midwest Title's Commercial Division handles Michigan's most complex commercial closings - acquisitions, refinances, construction loans, multi-parcel assemblages, distressed asset sales, and large-scale development deals. Founded and led by Dave Nykanen, a licensed Michigan real estate attorney with three decades of commercial real estate experience as both a practicing attorney and a title agent, the division gives CRE attorneys, lenders, brokers, and investors a Michigan title partner who reads commitments the way you read them - as deal documents, not paperwork.
Contact: commercial@mwtmi.com | Midwest Title | Commercial Division | Michigan-Licensed Title Insurance Agent
This newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
