VOLUME 7 • NUMBER 12 • SEPTEMBER 1989 JLC · SEPTEMBER 1989 A surplus of condos, some unfortunate business and banking decisions, and a leveling economy have resulted in a growing number of bad condo-development loans at savings banks in northern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. The bad loans—and in a few cases, allegations of fraud—have some people comparing the situation to a similar one in Texas in the early 1980s, when poor loan management and overbuilding led to a real estate crash and the ruin of dozens of savings and loan institutions and scores of developers. Others say such comparisons are out of line. But warning signs abound. The J.P. King Company, a Gadsden, Ala., auctioneering firm specializing in retail real estate auctions, opened
