FDIC Survey Finds Optimism Running High in Real Estate

The commercial and residential real estate markets inspired record or near-record optimism in April, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s quarterly real estate survey, released Thursday.

Real estate prices, construction, and sales are all on the rise nationwide, the survey indicated.

The 302 senior regulatory examiners and asset managers who were surveyed in April gave the real estate market an overall index score of 79, compared with 71 in April 1997. Under the FDIC's system, a score above 50 indicates that more respondents think conditions are improving rather than declining. A score below 50 indicates the opposite.

With respect to commercial real estate, more respondents noted improving local conditions-56%-than at any other time in the seven-year history of the survey. In the first FDIC survey, which took place April 1991, only 23% of those surveyed said conditions were on the upswing.

Similarly, the percentage of respondents citing improved conditions in residential housing markets-63%-hit a four-year high, the FDIC said. The comparable figure in April 1991 was 52%, and the all-time high of 69% came in April 1994.

Optimism spanned the country. The index of real estate trends was 87 in the West, 86 in the Northeast, 77 in the South, and 74 in the Midwest-all higher than a year earlier.

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