New York City commercial real estate transactions plunged 61% in 2008 through October as the global credit crisis roiled lending and sidelined buyers.
About $17 billion of transactions have closed so far and the market is headed for its worst year since 2004, according to data released Tuesday by Real Capital Analytics Inc. of New York. Sellers have made 237 deals of $5 million or more, a four-year low in a market that posted a record $51 billion in sales in 2007.
"The banks are not lending, and most of them are saying we're done for the year," said Scott Latham, an executive vice president for New York investment sales at Cushman & Wakefield Inc., the largest closely held commercial brokerage. "In all likelihood, you will see next to no transactions between now and the end of the year."
