Moody's/REAL Commercial Property Price Index Declines 1.7% for March

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Thu May 21, 2009 12:39pm EDT

Index Stands 20.8% below March 2008 Levels 22.8% below peak of October 2007

Value Drops Nearly 20% in First Quarter '09

NEW YORK, May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The Moody's/REAL National All Property Type
Aggregate Index from Real Estate Analytics, LLC, (REAL), measures 148.07 for
March 2009, a decrease of 1.7% from the previous month.  The Index, which has
captured price data through the end of March 2009, is now 20.8% lower than it
was a year ago and 22.8% below the peak measured in October 2007.  The index
also indicated a 20% drop in prices over the past two years and has returned
to its level of March 2005. 

"During the first quarter, we expected to see weakness in the office and
retail market.  However, not to the extent reflected by our National Office
(-18.6%) and National Retail (-12.9%) indices.  In addition, we are surprised
that our Top 10 MSA Retail index reflected a larger drop than our National
Retail index (-14.0 vs. 12.9)," said Neal Elkin, President of REAL.  

Mr. Elkin added that sales volume for the market overall, shows that both
total dollar value and number of sales are down about 75-80% lower than the
volume seen last year. 

In the first quarter, national office prices have fallen 30% from the peak and
national retail properties saw values fall 13%. Apartment and industrial
prices remained flat and Western apartment prices saw a slight gain of 2.7%. 
The offices sector experienced their single largest drop in the West with
values falling over 16% in the first quarter. 

Moody's/REAL Commercial Property Indices are owned by Real Estate Analytics,
LLC, and provides the only investable, transaction-based commercial real
estate benchmarks available in the United States. 

The All Property Type Aggregate Index is measured monthly, while national and
regional data by property type are measured quarterly. Changes in quarterly
indices, if any, will be reported in May 2009.  

To read the full report, please visit www.realindices.com.

About Real Estate Analytics LLC (REAL)

Real Estate Analytics LLC (REAL) provides world-class, real estate capital
markets solutions that address the needs of investors, property owners,
lenders and banks to more effectively utilize real estate as an asset class. 
REAL has developed a full suite of US commercial real estate price indices
based on transaction data from Real Capital Analytics and has teamed with
Moody's to publish them as Moody's/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices. 
For more information, visit www.realindices.com.

SOURCE  Real Estate Analytics LLC

Sze Ki Chau of Real Estate Analytics LLC (REAL), +1-212-259-3279,
skchau@realindices.com
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