Landlord concessions like giving tenants more time to make the rent and agreeing to subleases is helping the commercial real estate sector make a “modest improvement,” according to HousingWire.com.

According to data from the latest National Association of Realtors’ Commercial Real Estate Index, subleasing remains high and lenders are more lenient in allowing for extra time for tenants to make their lease payments.

CRE development remains stalled in all regions, but acquisitions are increasing and one CRE economist told HousingWire that, “the odds that it will transition to a self-sustaining expansion by 2011 remain better than 50%.”

The NAR CRE Index estimates that vacancy rates are expect to increase slightly from the second quarter this year to the second quarter of 2011, then begin a slow decline in the second half of next year.

Currently, retail vacancy rates remain largely flat, but industrial vacancy rates continue to grow.

CoreLogic has just introduced a new software program designed to catch real estate brokers and agents who commit short sale fraud by providing a low bid to lenders in order to get a second commission by flopping the property to a higher bidder.

The new CoreLogic Short Sale Monitoring Solution is designed to help lenders maximize what they are earning on short sales by alerting lenders about all offers made on the property. The software also monitors the property after the sale is complete. If it is “flopped” for a higher price, the lender is notified and can pursue the agent or broker involved for fraud.

CoreLogic says it estimates that lenders are currently losing over $40,000 per short sale transaction – or a total of $310 million in 2010. The company estimates there will be in excess of 400,000 short sales negotiated through real estate agents this year.

Buy and bail – where a homeowner buys a new house before his credit is trashed by walking away from the old one – is on the rise, according to a recent Bloomberg report.

According to the article, those most likely to “buy and bail” have a large income and low debt, enabling them to qualify for a mortgage – now at historic lows – on another home. Once they purchase that home, they then walk away from the old home that likely carries a much larger mortgage payment at a much higher interest rate on a property that is worth considerably less than they paid for it.

A Morgan Stanley report noted that those most likely to walk away are debtors with the best credit scores and jumbo loans that exceed the Fannie and Freddie cap limits for mortgages. They have typically lost more than $100,000 in property value.

Both GSEs put protections in place two years ago to thwart buy and bailers, but a Freddie Mac spokesman quoted in the Bloomberg piece said, “it still seems to be going on.”

Of course, if buy and bailers use false information to qualify for a loan on that next house, that’s called fraud. And the FBI is working with local housing agencies to conduct investigations.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s latest movie, The Expendables, is a summer hit and Californians are now waiting for him to morph into the homeowners’ hero by signing SB 1178, the bill extending anti-deficiency protection for consumers facing foreclosure who refinanced their original mortgage loans that was approved by the California Sate Assembly earlier this month.

Currently, if a homeowner defaults on a mortgage loan, their liability is limited to the property itself. However, homeowners who refinanced their original mortgages did not have the same protection. Sponsored by the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.), SB 1178 was passed to protect homeowners in foreclosure from lenders suing for the difference between the value of the foreclosed property and the outstanding balance on the loan.

If the Governor signs the bill, it will become law effective June 2011.