Everyone is feeling the pain in this real estate down cycle.  Yesterday, Realogy, parent company of Coldwell Banker, reported a loss of $797 million for the period since April, 2007 when they were acquired by Apollo Management LP.

Realogy, now owned by buyout specialists, Apollo Management, owns several different real estate brokerage franchises.  In the Twin Cities, they own Coldwell Banker Burnet as well as new comer, Sky Sotheby’s International Realty.

According to the Inman News story about the $797 million loss for Realogy, they stated:

Bloomberg News this month reported that bonds related to the Apollo buyout of Realogy have been losing value, with some bonds due in 2015 trading at about 51 cents on the dollar compared with about 80 cents on the dollar five months ago.

Richard A. Smith, Realogy CEO and president, said in a February statement that changes in the company’s bond values have “little bearing on our company’s financial performance and is not an accurate indicator of our ability to continue to meet our debt obligations.

In a world that is rapidly de-leveraging, it has to be difficult when you are very leveraged.  Millions of homeowners are finding this out as we speak.

Realogy owns some of the best known brands in the business including the aforementioned Coldwell Banker, as well as Century 21.

Perhaps with all the work The Federal Reserve has done the past several weeks, the credit crunch, that has led to so many leveraged companies seeing the value of their bonds collapse, will finally be over and they will see some recovery.  Today’s stock market sure seemed to think that we are starting to see some improvement.

In an effort for full disclosure, I do work for Edina Realty.  Edina Realty is a competitor to Coldwell Banker Burnet in the Twin Cities.  Edina Realty is owned by Home Services of America which is a Berkshire Hathaway Company, led by Warren Buffet.