The commercial real estate transaction market experienced a little more liquidity in 2011; however, new real estate commitments by plan sponsors remained restrained, partly due to the wall of previously committed capital yet to be invested and also due to the lack of distributions from existing investments. Through mid-November, Institutional Real Estate, Inc. (IREI) tracked approximately $6.9 billion of publicly announced capital commitments, an 8 percent increase from the 2010 total, and up 28 percent from the $5.4 billion recorded in 2009. By comparison, IREI tracked $17.6 billion of commitments to real estate during the market peak in 2007 and $15.5 billion in 2008.

While last year witnessed an investor flight to quality and an emphasis on core investment strategies, investors in 2011 had seemingly tired of the intense competition and low cap rates in the core sector and were ready