The L.A. skyline
From the New York site: Is the boom about to bust? U.S. commercial real estate sales took a dive last month in what may be the clearest sign that six years of growth is leveling off.
In February, $25.1 billion worth of commercial property was sold compared with $47.3 billion in February 2015, according to Real Capital Analytics.
Sales were $46.2 billion in January, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Since 2009, prices for apartment complexes, office buildings, stores and other commercial property climbed, but there are indications that they are now falling in certain sectors, according to the Journal.
“Clearly there has been a plateauing,” Jonathan Gray, global head of real estate for Blackstone Group, told the Journal.
Green Street Advisors, a real estate research and advisory firm, compiled an index of hotel values and found it was 10 percent lower in February than during the same time last year. The decline was partly attributed to reduced business and international travel.
Green Street’s broad valuation index was 8.7 percent higher in February than a year earlier, however, the previous year the index increased 11 percent, the Journal reported.
Still, Gray emphasized to the Journal that the market is healthier than before the crash and “it’s too early to call the end of the cycle.” [WSJ] — Dusica Sue Malesevic