While there have been signs of improvement, the local real estate industry remains plagued by a rash of troubled properties saddled with bad loans and falling values.

The number of New York City commercial properties with loans that entered special servicing surged 80% in the first 11 months of 2010, reaching 54, compared with a total of 30 for all of 2009. Apartment houses accounted for the largest share of the bad loans, with a total of 21. There were 13 office towers in the crop of poorly performing assets. And each property’s value sank by an average of 47%, to $220 million.

The outlook may not be as bleak as the recent data suggest, says Paul Mancuso, a vice president at Trepp, which tracks real estate debt and provided the above-mentioned figures.

The primary reason for the sharp increase in the number of loans entering special servicing was a late-2009 change in the tax code, under which loans can enter the process without first going into default. That allows owners to get an earlier start on the process of negotiating terms with lenders.

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