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PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute released their annual look at Emerging Trends in commercial real estate. The verdict? It may be a rough year, but commercial real estate could remain a better bet than stocks or bonds.

Commercial real estate investors and developers should brace for more uncertainty in 2008 as fundamentals and pricing continue to soften, based on the newly released Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2008 report.

The bellwether survey, which polls 600 U.S.-based real estate executives, is conducted annually by trade group Urban Land Institute (ULI) and accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Much of the report states the obvious. For instance, more than 78% of all respondents expect to see more stringent underwriting practices in 2008.

Even so, more than half of respondents believe that real estate investments will still outperform U.S. stock and bond markets next year. They also expect “ample capital sources” to cushion the property markets, a view that’s hardly synonymous with prospects of tighter underwriting.