RCA in the commercial property press:

Commercial real estate sales off 77%

South Florida Business Journal reports: While bargains are driving residential sales, South Florida’s commercial real estate market remains largely shut down – a reminder that another potential wave of distressed properties still looms.

Sales of office buildings, warehouses, shopping centers and other commercial properties fell 77 percent in South Florida through May, compared to the first five months of 2008, according to data from Real Capital Analytics.

That’s consistent with what is happening with commercial sales volumes nationally, but it could foretell that 2009 is setting up to be far worse than 2008 when sales volume toppled 65 percent.

“Commercial property is very much an industry that relies on debt and the lack of financing has really brought us these low sales levels,” said Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital Analytics, a New York-based research firm. Many of the deals getting done, Fasulo said, are for assets priced at $10 million or less, a level where community banks will lend to buyers with large down payments.