December 31, 2009

The ranks of Southwest Florida's banking industry were thinner by the end of 2009, decimated by failures that resulted mainly from ill-considered loans made to purchase residential real estate. As the new year starts, mortgages on commercial property were starting to follow suit. Here's a look at what experts expect in 2010:Don't expect a quick return to easy money for businessmen looking to expand or start a new venture, warns Tom Wallace, president of Fort Myers-based Independent Development Services Corp., which helps businesses expand using a combination of private loans and Small Business Administration lending programs.

"It's not just the loosening of credit standards," he said. "It's the economy returning to health, lenders returning to health, consumers going back to work, banks re-capitalizing."Until those things happen, he said, a robust business lending environment won't reappear. "There is no silver bullet for this."Despite efforts by the federal government to rejuvenate the home-buying market, it's still not easy for consumers to finance the purchase of a house, said Michael Timmerman, a Naples-based senior associate with Fishkind & Associates, an Orlando-based economic consulting firm.