The RCA report tallies worldwide property sales through August,the latest month for which figures are available. Sales ofsignificant commercial properties worldwide totaled $388 billion, a57% decrease compared to same period in 2007. The pace oftransactions plummeted too, plunging 64% from the same period lastyear, according to the study. Researchers found office salesworldwide were down 65% to $136 billion, second only on apercentage basis to hotel sales, which were down 71% to $26.5billion.

In addition, RCA suggests it won't get much better throughyear's end. The report points out September "usually sets the paceof the investment market through year-end." If this September isany indication, researchers say "the property markets are in forsome troubling times."

The RCA report traces how what began as a seemingly localizedproblem relating to companies in the subprime mortgage industry,like now-defunct New Century Financial Corp. of Irvine, CA, hasburgeoned into a worldwide credit crunch that "has been impedingdeal flow in the US and Europe and is now spreading throughout Asiaand erupting into a full-blown financial crisis." Property pricesare weakening in most parts of the globe, according to the report."Early on, investors flocked to Asia, thinking it might be immuneto the credit crunch," the team explains. However, the creditcrisis has now slowed sales in virtually all markets.