That "hit bottom" theme has competition, however, with "At leastit's not 2009," a phrase in nearly every industry player today.About 40% of the survey respondents said they are "bullish" on themarket today, up from only 10% when the survey was last done inSeptember 2008.

Jay Epstien, partner and chairman of the company's US RealEstate Group, tells GlobeSt.com. that now is the time for theeconomy to start unfettered growth. "I don't think we're out of thewoods yet," he says. "There's lots of good things that havehappened in the past quarter. I think everyone believes that theeconomy will come back, but slowly, and only with the return ofjobs."

While job growth is a main indicator of economic recovery, thereare other factors at play, Epstien says. Keeping interest rateslow, the finance regulatory bill and the abundance of capitalwaiting for the bid-ask to get to an acceptable gap are also on theminds of commercial property owners, investors, developers andbrokers, according to the survey.