Market Forecast - Partly Sunny with Storm Clouds Diminishing...

Are we weathering the storm? I believe I see a trend developing! Many companies have now repositioned themselves to survive this downturn. Through layoffs, budget reductions, and overall just doing more with less, many firms are beginning to gain confidence that they will survive. Now that their “houses” are in order, they are beginning to think, once again, about profitability. To these companies, banks and lenders remain the proverbial “cloud” on the horizon. Many real estate experts concur that banks are failing to recognize that there are solutions available and work with owners who are “upside down” – or have negative equity in their properties. There is a lot of money on the sidelines of the distressed asset program just waiting to be utilized; however, banks are not willing to recognize that they have these distressed assets on the books and take the required step of “writing down” the asset in order to facilitate a sale. Lenders must begin to do this in order to bring an end to the commercial real estate recession.

As the “dog days” of August roll on, I foresee a continuing “flatness” to the marketplace tempered by an outlook that we may be slowly heading in the right direction.

Finally, if you are a tenant whose lease is expiring in 2009 and 2010, you are in the right place at the right time. Now is the time to enter the marketplace and explore your options. If you navigate to the “In the News” page of the NAI Commercial Jacksonville website, www.naicommjax.com, you can read about a large tenant in a healthy industry who, I can assure you, just made an excellent deal for themselves.