"Add Sam Zell's voice to the growing chorus expected a difficult time for the commercial real estate markets. He said property owners are living in a dream world and prices and rents will fall as much as 30% in the months ahead. He told a charity conference that he would start buying hotels when the bottom falls out finally and expects to get them for forty to fifty cents on the dollar. He expects mortgage restructurings to increase and predict many commercial property owner will be wiped out.

When you have two of the most successful distressed investors of our time calling for a virtual crash in the cre market it is probably a good idea to pay attention. Not too long ago Wilber Ross said that he also expected CRE prices to crash. This does not bode well for banks and ultimately the stock market. "