Experts Expect Cyclical Downturn Despite Current Strength

The Trigild Lender Conference panel covered a number of hot-button issues, from interest rates to the growing political divide.

SAN DIEGO—The US economy is sailing and should continue to do so, but the historically prolonged CRE boom strongly signals a cyclical downturn ahead, according to most panelists and speakers at the recent 16^th Annual Trigild Lender Conference here. A number of hot button issues dominated the conference, including historically low interest rates, homeownership shifts, global volatility, the oil-market slump and a growing political divide to name a few—but despite the headwinds, one thing remained clear: the US commercial real estate market and overall economy remain relatively healthy, at least in the short term.

Hundreds of real estate, legal and finance industry leaders joined Peter Muoio, Ph. D., EVP and chief economist at Ten-X, an online real estate platform, and other keynote speakers—Sam Chandan, Ph.D., a noted economist and president of Chandan Economics; Robert Guest, foreign editor of The Economist; and Donald Sheets, managing partner of AlumCreek Holdings—to examine the state of commercial real estate and overall economic trends at the annual conference, presented by Trigild, a San Diego-based real estate services company.