As the U.S. economy contracts, widespread job loss — 1.3 million jobs were lost in the first 11 months of 2009 — has taken its toll on consumer spending and demand for industrial space.
On many fronts, early 2010 looks to be an opportune time to return to the commercial real estate market. Price declines are leveling off, and transaction volume has improved slightly.
Heading into the New Year and pondering the oft-
disappointing New Year’s resolution, I’ve been thinking about what the investment world —managers, consultants and institutional investors — could resolve to do differently to avoid these wild swings of the world economic pendulum and the subsequent suffering that accompanies the painful correction of our collective mistakes.
A conversation with Peter Crosson: The Institutional Real Estate Letter – North America sat down with Peter Crosson, chief real estate investment officer at Alaska Electrical Pension Fund, to discuss the impact of the economic downturn on institutional investment portfolios, the outlook for the real estate market and investors’ heightened awareness of risk.
The most recent crisis in real estate, like previous crises, has prompted introspection among investors. Pension plans, and the real estate management companies they invest with, are taking a serious look at how they measure price and monitor real estate risk in hopes of better avoiding disaster in the future.