Bankers Are Worried About Sky-High Commercial Real Estate Prices

Janet Yellen recorded the warning a day before stepping down as Federal Reserve chair in February: Commercial real estate prices look strikingly high. Her successor, Jerome Powell, flagged it again a month later. Analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. tried in May to put a number on it: Properties may be overvalued as much as 16 percent. Soon, Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer Tim Sloan went on television, saying some deals looked ���frothy” and that his bank was pulling back. In the past month, executives at regional lenders including U.S. Bancorp and KeyCorp have chimed in with similar concerns.