Commercial Real Estate Quarterly Market Survey - April 2011

Is the commercial real estate market doing better?  Have rental rates declined?  Is financing still a challenge?

To get the answers to these and many more questions about the current state of the Commercial Real Estate Market you will want to go the the Quarterly Market Survey from the National Association of Realtors.

Here are just some of the main points from the survey...

•   Overall market activity registered slight improvements.
•   Sales volume rose 3 percent from a year ago.
•   Sales prices declined 10 percent on a year-over-year basis.
•   Leasing activity gained 4 percent from the previous quarter.
•   Rental rates declined 6 percent compared with the previous quarter.
•   Concession levels moved up 3 percent on a quarterly basis.
•   Financing remains at the top of the current challenges list, followed by pricing.
•   The estimated average transaction declined 6 percent from the previous quarter, to $1.2
million.

Click on the following link to see the entire survey.


Quarterly Market Survey

Joe

Commercial Property Values help with DC's fiscal 2012...or do they?

It was good news to hear that Washington, DC was less in the hole for fiscal 2012 because the values of commercial property are expected to rise 16% next year.  The problem is that it might not be true.  According to the District's property assessment appeals panel the tax and revenue assessments are often wrong.

Read more in the article by Michael Neibauer of the Washington Business Journal.

D.C. commercial assessments debunked?

Joe

The Federal Reserve Goes International

According to the Washington Business Journal's BizBeat, The Federal Reserve has leased 141,000 square feet at International Center.

Tishman Speyer Properties’ International Square project at 1850 K St. NW

Read More: Washington Business Journal 

Good Signs For The Commercial Real Estate Market.

According to property research firm Reis Inc. there are some good things happening in the Office Market...

• Occupied office space increased for the first time in nearly three years.
• Average office rents rose by 0.2% to $22.09 per square foot.
• In the last Qtr of 2010, occupied office space grew by 2.5 million Square feet.

...but it shouldn't surprise you to hear that not everything is Rosie.  In general the office market is still weak. The national vacancy rate is 17.6%, and average rents have not returned to 2008 levels.  Hey, it can't all come back overnight.

Click the link below to read a Wall Street Journal article by Anton Troianovski  entitled Fresh Signs of Life in Office Market.

WSJ - Office Market

Joe

Will there be a commercial real estate comeback for the end of the year?

The commercial real estate market has been on a slippery road this year, but there are some good indicators that  the fourth quarter will show a comeback.  We are seeing a lot more depth to the market, the mood of institutional investors has improved, and the bright spot is the CMBS 2.0 is back.

Click on the link to learn more in an article by Julia Grant of John B. Levy & Company.

Julia Grant - Yahoo! News