Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2010 by PricewaterhouseCoopers

As reported by PricewaterhouseCoopers in their "Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2010."

PWC's full PDF real estate report:
http://www.pwc.com/us/en/asset-management/real-estate/assets/2010-emerging-trends-us.pdf

Below is an excerpt from the preface to PWC's Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2010. Click the link directly above to access the entire real estate report.

After more than a year spent in suspended animation lagging already shattered housing markets, the commercial real estate industry hits bottom in 2010, suffering a surge of painful writedowns, defaults, and workouts. Massive government infusions finally build up loss reserves in financial institutions to levels allowing them to foreclose or strike deals with many overleveraged borrowers. In turn, banks will start to dispose of real estate owned, and government regulators will package and sell more bad loans and real estate assets acquired in takeovers of increasing numbers of failed community and regional banks. Transaction markets will begin to thaw and value declines ultimately will average more than 40 percent off mid-2007 pricing peaks. These property market reversals likely will be the worst registered since the Great Depression, eclipsing the industry debacle of the early 1990s.


In a classic timing play, investors with cash should be poised to take advantage of highly attractive buying opportunities at cyclical lows. Stressed owners, meanwhile, gird to hold on if possible and try to maximize property cash flows by focusing on asset management and leasing strategies in a decidedly tenants’ market. Emerging Trends surveys indicate that 2010 will be the worst time for investors to sell properties in the report's 30-year history, but will offer a much-improving environment to buy (with cash).