Last year, I did a blog entry asking whether the faltering United States commercial real estate market was going to create a new mortgage crisis, resulting in a double dip recession.

Now we have reports that the Congressional Oversight Panel is warning that a wave of defaults on commercial real estate loans next year could see US banks losing $300 million. According to the report, about $1.4 trillion in commercial real estate loans will reach the end of their term between 2010 and 2014. It says commercial property values have fallen more than 40% since the start of 2007 and more than half the borrowers are “under water”, meaning they owe more on the property than what it’s worth with the collapse in prices. This will affect more than 3000 small and mid-sized banks.

Mortgage has become one of the most important elements in modern day living and a key concept that might help one out in fetching the intended amount of money one needs to fulfill his or her dream. However, the very term ‘mortgage’ has been derived from the French word meaning “dead page”. Nonetheless, a mortgage is a device used to create a lien on real estate by contract. It very efficiently used in creation of a lien on a contract basis.

The mortgage as a lien is usually created on real state – a house, for instance. It is more often used deliberately as a method by which individuals or businesses can buy residential or commercial property without paying the full value upfront. The borrower, (the person concerned for taking the real estate by paying a part of the total money on a contract basis) is often called the mortgager. The mortgager then uses a mortgage to pledge real property to the lender, who is more often called the mortgagee. It is usually put forward in the shape of a security against the debt (also called hypothecation) for the rest of the value of the property.