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Byline: Lingling Wei 

In 2007, at the height of the commercial real-estate boom, Credit Suisse Group packaged 250 mortgages into bonds and sold them to investors in a $3.3 billion issue of commercial-mortgage-backed securities. 

The story of how some of those loans soured explains why investors, including pension funds, mutual funds and hedge funds, are starting to take their lumps from holding debt on office towers, strip malls and other commercial real estate. While values have shown signs of stabilizing, the weak economy continues to hammer rents and occupancy rates in many markets. As a result, defaults, foreclosures and losses on mortgages are rising. Read more.