Meltdown not yet over, new US mortgage crisis looms in horizon

WASHINGTON, Nov 28, (AP): The full scope of the US housing meltdown isn’t clear and already there are ominous signs of a new crisis — one that could turn out the lights on malls, hotels and storefronts across the country. Even as the holiday shopping season begins in full swing, the same events poisoning the housing market are now at work on commercial properties, and the bad news is trickling in. Malls around the United States are entering foreclosure. Hotels in Tucson, Arizona, and Hilton Head, South Carolina, also are about to default on their mortgages. That pace is expected to quicken. The number of late payments and defaults will double, if not triple, by the end of next year, according to analysts from Fitch Ratings Ltd., which evaluates companies’ credit.

[b]“We’re probably in the first inning of the commercial mortgage problem,â€