Global law firm DLA Piper reported some interesting findings in their 2008 “State of the Market” Real Estate Survey.  Here are few findings that have been the most discussed and reported on since the full survey was released –

– Sixty percent of respondents report that the current credit crisis has now eclipsed the savings and loan crisis of the late ’80s and early ’90s as the event with the single-greatest impact on the commercial real estate industry during the past 20 years.

– Eighty percent of respondents do not believe that the recent developments concerning Lehman Brothers, AIG and Merrill Lynch signal the “bottom” of the cycle, nor do respondents think they provide the “first sign of light” at the end of the credit crisis tunnel.

– Over fifty percent of respondents don’t expect securitized lending to recover and return to its previous market levels until at least 2011, while 16 percent reported that securitized lending will never again reach its prior levels.

– Sixty-two percent of respondents don’t expect the real estate markets to stabilize until 2010 and 22 percent don’t expect to see stabilization until 2011.

– More than two out of three respondents think that John McCain, if elected, is likely to have a more favorable impact on the commercial real estate industry than Barack Obama.

– Fifty-one percent of respondents expect foreign investors to be the most active in the US during the next year and, consistent with that conclusion, nearly twenty percent of respondents has engaged in a transaction involving investments from sovereign-wealth funds.

The survey was originally conducted between 27 August and 5 September 2008, though respondents were re-surveyed later in the month. 

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