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David Bodamer
David Bodamer has been Editor-in-Chief since May 2006. Prior to that, he served as Managing Editor. Before joining Retail Traffic, Bodamer served as associate editor and senior associate editor for Commercial...more

Another Price Drop for Commercial Real Estate

David Bodamer January 2nd, 2008

NREI reports on a drop in the latest S&P/GRA Commercial Real Estate Indices updated through September.

Monthly returns for a national index of commercial properties posted a negative 0.8% in September, the first monthly decline since November 2006, Standard & Poor’s reported on Dec. 18 when it released September results of its S&P/GRA Commercial Real Estate Indices. The month’s decline marked a reversal of August’s 1.1% gain and a 0.6% increase reported in July.

On a rolling 12-month basis, the national index still showed a positive 5.1% return in September. Yet that rate of return was down more than a full percentage point from summer figures, including annual returns of 6.6% in June, 6.4% in July and 6.2% in August.

“On a national scale, annual returns appear to be speeding up in their rate of deceleration,” says David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s. September results of the indices revealed “annual returns at levels not seen since early 2004,” Blitzer added.

Previous posts on the S&P/GRA Indices can be found here, here and here.