Last year, 18 percent of the 1,026 building sales were distress sales.

When times are tough, however, distress sales are often what bolster the market.

Legal experts regarded the decision as more symbolic than substantive, because of the relatively small number of distress sales.

If owners of vacant properties are forced into distress sales, more attractive opportunities for private redevelopment would result.

With oil prices firming and drilling beginning to increase, he expects distress sales to cease within a year.

Of more than 9,000 broadcast license sales since 1978, only a few dozen were distress sales to minority-owned companies.

This also prevented distress sales of grain at lower prices at harvest time.

No immediate end to this vicious cycle of falling values, foreclosures and distress sales is in sight.

The availability of longer subleases could lead more committed tenants and also avoid possible distress sales that might undermine values in the building.

By midsummer, with most plum choices and dates booked, there could be distress sales.