"This has been the tale of two markets this year," says JeffEllerman, vice chairman with CB Richard Ellis' Dallas office. "Wehad a great market for the first half, which was fairly resilientand with a good activity and deal flow, even as the rest of thecountry was suffering a downturn."Then came September and thestring of bank failures. "Things ground to a halt," Ellerman says."What we've seen here is a real significant decrease in thevelocity of transactions."

"We're not frozen in Dallas, not yet," comments Mark Noble,managing director with Colliers International Dallas-Fort Worth."But we're currently skidding and no one's certain what conditionwe're going to be in during the coming year."

Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. managing director John Alvarado agreeswith his colleagues' assessment, saying the local market iscontaminated by the country's economic downturn. Though the NorthTexas economy is diversified and not severely overbuilt, "everybodyis anticipating seeing a little slowdown in the coming quarters,"says Alvarado, who works from the company's Dallas office.