Daily Real Estate News  |  November 3, 2009  |   Roundtable Views Market as Weak
The national Real Estate Roundtable’s quarterly survey of real estate sentiment remained as negative as it was in the second quarter, emphasizing high unemployment, high vacancy rates, reduced credit capacity, and plummeting values for residential and commercial real estate.

"The problems now are more clearly defined and there's a grim sense of reality setting in, but that's a long way from saying markets are stabilizing or that conditions are on the mend," says Roundtable CEO Jeffrey DeBoer.

But compared to the Roundtable’s previous surveys of real estate executives, the outlook is improving. Nearly 28 percent of those polled say credit availability is worse today than a year ago, down from 71 percent who said so in the previous quarter. The percentage that characterize equity availability as worse today than one year ago also dropped significantly – from 55 percent in the 3rd quarter to 17 percent in the latest survey.

An overwhelming majority of the 100-plus respondents in the fourth-quarter survey say property values are down today vs. a year ago, although the percentage declined to 77 percent from 93 percent in the previous quarter. But respondents are far from optimistic about future valuations, with 71 percent saying they expect values to remain "about the same" or to erode even further in the next 12 months.

Source: Real Estate Roundtable (11/02/2009)