The State of Commercial Real Estate

I am asked every day if commercial real estate is feeling the affects of the housing crisis and the economy. It's usually the last to be affected and the last to come out of a slump. From Marketwatch.com today and the world's leading commercial real estate company (red and italics added):

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Shares of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. (CBG:
cb richard ellis group inc cl a
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Last: 14.90-3.75-20.13%11:49am 07/30/2008Delayed quote data
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CBG 14.90, -3.75, -20.1%) , the world's largest commercial real estate services firm in terms of revenue, fell 22% on Wednesday after the company reported earnings and revenue came in short of analyst estimates. The company late Tuesday said that its profit fell 88% to $16.6 million, or 8 cents a share, down from $141.1 million, or 59 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts' mean estimates were for per-share earnings of 44 cents on revenue of $1.42 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters. "Based upon our initial review of the numbers we offer three key takeaways: sales weakness has spread globally now as opposed to mostly in the US in the first quarter of 2008, leasing activities are now also weakening after a strong first quarter, and lastly investment management incentive fees now look to be essentially non- existent in 2008," Citigroup analysts said in a Wednesday research report..