The month of May could be the bottom of the downturn, at leastfor the commercial real estate sector. Commercial real estate datafrom LightBox, including environmental reportactivity, suggests that May could have been the worst month forcommercial real estate investment activity during the pandemic.

"Input from the commercial real estate sector suggests that Maycould well be the bottom of this downturn, and we are beginning tosee early green shoots as commercial property transactions begin torecover from the late 1Q2020 shock related to the pandemic,"Dianne Crocker from LightBox tells GlobeSt.com."The latest LightBox May Confidence Index, based on a monthlysurvey of due diligence professionals, lenders, brokers andappraisers across the U.S., reflected slightly more optimism in thecommercial real estate markets over the past month than inApril."

However, while optimism began to rebound in May, the monthcontinued to be slow in terms of activity. "Most respondents werestill operating at less than their typical capacity in May, withmany proactively shifting employees' focus areas of responsibilityaway from projects dependent on property deals," Crocker says. "Onereported slight improvement as "some clients are getting activenow, but others are waiting for things to settle a bit more."Another key change exhibited by the May survey results was alengthening in the expected horizon for the market's expectedreturn to pre-pandemic levels. In the April survey, 36% ofrespondents expected recovery by 4Q2020 or 2021, increasing to 47%this month."