19 July 2010

The Wall Street Journal

In another sign the national commercial property market is on the mend from a brutal downturn, U.S.  commercial real estate prices increased 3.6% in May,  the second consecutive monthly increase, as measured by Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices CPPI. Commercial real estate prices in April rose 1.7%.

“We expect commercial real estate prices to remain choppy in the coming months,” said Moody’s Managing Director Nick Levidy in a release Monday. “The positive news of increasing prices over the past two months is tempered by low transaction volumes, forecasts for slowing macroeconomic growth and the rising risk of a double dip recession.”

Nationwide, prices are currently 38.9% below their peak in October 2007 and have come back 8.6% from their October 2009 low, says Moody’s. Prices are down 6.3% over the past year and down 33.% over the past two years.