2011 Q1 Summary

Bid and ask of commercial real estate coming in. Sellers are getting more in tune to the changing
playing conditions. Its not enough to have 2 parties agree to a sales contract. Sellers and Buyers better 1st check with the bank to see what their position is before the fees start coming on the due diligence. Absorption among some of the better geographically positioned properties are being leased all be it at 20% discounts. Many , many things must happen in order for this recovery to maintain an upward bias. Interest rates, oil prices, unemployment, political unrest and I mean London yesterday not the Middle East could derail the positive outlook. If any one of these issues gets more negative , all bets are off. Lets not forget inflation. Right NOW, things we NEED are inflating, ie.. food and energy and things we WANT are deflating. I think the gold/silver metal inflation edge is a combination of Asian countries looking to diversify out of the dollar into hard metal assets and ETF speculators have pushed up these prices 10-15% more than normal. Meaning that margin calls could wipe out a year to date gain in a matter of days. Watching the stock value of Prologis and First Industrial to get a read on how the debt will be managed as it matures. Follow the institutional money into these if you see highers highs and lower lows but be cautious if these can't hold. They both are at a crossroads of indecision as far the markets preceiving their value. It may be better to own the stock equity of real estate investment trusts vs. the actual real estate in the short to medium term. Resaon being , they are more liquid in a time of any crisis.