Outlook for 2013: Slow Growth, No Recession

CHICAGO-Gazing into its collective crystal ball, members of the research team at Jones Lang LaSalle‘s 2013 outlook media briefing, which took place Nov. 13, offered a good-news, bad-news scenario. The bad news is that uncertainty still exists even though the presidential election is over; and that uncertainty could put a damper on economic growth which would, in turn, impact commercial real estate growth and activity.

On the other side of the coin, the good news is that JLL managing director Ben Breslau isn’t predicting a recession during the next year. “We’ll see slow growth, but no recession,” he commented. The slow growth is – and will continue to – result from uncertainty. Though the question of who will run the country for the next four years has been answered (and along with it questions pertaining to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, known as “Obamacare” and “Dodd-Frank” respectively), enough questions remain to cloud the immediate future.