Encouraging Signs Emerge For Investors With Cash
Richmond Times-Dispatch reports: If you are on the transaction side of the commercial real estate business, you may feel as if you are an unwilling participant in a video of heavy metal band Quiet Riot's "Bang your head" song where nonstop music streams to your ear in ever louder chords.
Every day is similar to the last. Deals are few and far between, and they just don't close.
Welcome to the life of a real estate broker in 2009.
Various industry research reports support what many are experiencing.
Investment sales transaction volume is down about 70 percent compared with the same time last year, according to Real Capital Analytics.
The reasons: Money is scarce. Investors lack an appetite for risk. Values have fallen more than sellers want to realize. The days of easy money are gone.
But amidst the doom and gloom, a number of encouraging signs emerge, particularly for private or local investors who have some cash.
Private buyers or local investors for apartment properties now make up more than 80 percent of transaction volume, Real Capital Analytics said. This is up significantly from prior years when institutional money and real estate investment trusts, or REITs, were more active and crowded out local investors.
View the full article on Richmond Times-Dispatch: Encouraging Signs Emerge For Investors With Cash
Posted by: Mark Alferman