Daily Real Estate News  |  November 5, 2009  |   Report: Commercial Real Estate to Bottom in 2010
Commercial real estate is in for some tough sledding in the short term, but it’s likely to hit bottom by the end of 2010, according to a survey of investors, developers, lenders and other industry observers.

The 2010 version of Emerging Trends in Real Estate, released by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute, predicts that commercial real estate values will decline an average of 40 percent from their peak in 2007. The survey called this fall the worst commercial decline since the Great Depression and said it would overshadow the 1990s savings-and-loan crisis.

Retail and office properties are likely to be hardest hit, while the apartment sector will benefit from the decline in the residential real estate sector.

Cities where conditions are likely to improve first include Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Boston, and New York.

To potential developers of new projects, the survey says “no way.” "You can close up shop, hit the links," the report said. "Forget about construction financing – that's a pipe dream."

Source: Reuters News, Nick Zieminski (11/05/2009)