NAR Says Commercial Sector to Improve in 2011

The National Associaton of Realtors posted a new video this week with a commercial real estate update for January 2011. Jed Smith, Managing Director, Quantitative Research, and George Ratiu, Research Economist, discussed metrics from NAR's latest Quarterly Commercial Real Estate Market Survey. The survey is a new quarterly project measuring activity in the commercial real estate markets and collects data from commercial Realtors with the aim of providing members with an overview of the market performance, sales and rental transactions, current economic challenges and future expectations.
Survey hilights include:

• Sales volume was virtually unchanged in the third quarter compared with a year ago.
• Sales prices declined 13% in the third quarter on a year-over-year basis.
• Leasing activity advanced 4% from the previous quarter.
• Rental rates declined 7% compared with the previous quarter.
• Concession levels moved up 7% on a quarterly basis.
• Financing continues to top the list of most pressing current challenges, followed by the national economy.
• The estimated average transaction value rose 27% from the previous quarter, to $1.4 million.

Smith and Ratiu reflect on the survey's findings that even though right now, with high vacancies and low rents, the market remains difficult, there are signs of recovery in the market in the coming year and even more room for significant improvement in 2012. Click here to watch the video.
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