Last summer I wrote that it was time to buy residential real estate if you were in the market and looking for a bargain. I never expect to call a market bottom, and certainly not for long-cycle assets like houses, but I seem to have come pretty close. The latest S&P/Case-Shiller survey results released last week suggest housing prices bottomed out around April 2009, when its 20-city composite index stood down 32.6% from its peak in June/July 2006.”

Read more: Is Commercial Real Estate Set to Rebound? SmartMoney.com

Some Commercial REITs Still Look Good!
APRIL5, 2010 :posted by SY HARDING : Forbes
“The next problem area in the financial sector is supposed to be commercial real estate. The unusually high number of vacant office and retail facilities observed on a drive through most any town or city seems to confirm that, as does a walk through most any shopping mall.

Yet carefully selected REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) invested in commercial properties have been doing very well and continue to look good.

Two that look particularly promising are First Potomac Realty Trust (FPO), and Realty Income Corp. (O), both trading on the NYSE.”

Read more: Some Commercial REITs Still Look Good! Forbes.com

Blind Pool Party
Peter Slatin, 03.25.10, 09:00 PM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated April 12, 2010
“Some smart guys want your capital to use buying distressed real estate. Which ones deserve it?

It was just over a year ago that the NAREIT index of REIT shares hit bottom after dropping 75% from its peak in February 2007. It has since rebounded 94%. A nice start, but prices would have to better than double from today’s level to get back to where they were.

With hindsight, the bubble in commercial real estate looks pretty absurd. Purchasers of commercial property were so convinced that rents would go up forever that half-empty buildings changed hands at higher prices than those filled with solid rent-paying tenants.”

Read more: Forbes.com