DSNews.com reports that billionaire investor, Wilbur Ross, says that the U.S. is at the very beginning of a “huge crash in commercial real estate” and that he would exercise “extreme caution” before investing in this sector of real estate. “All of the components of real estate value are going in the wrong direction simultaneously,” Ross said in a Bloomberg interview. “Occupancy rates are going down. Rent rates are going down and the capitalization rates—the return that investors are demanding to buy a property—are going up.” The Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices have fallen almost 41 percent since October 2007, according to Bloomberg. Ross expects that it will get much worse before it gets any better. Ross, CEO of WL Ross & Co., says that office space in commercial buildings has and will continue to be hit very hard as these buildings are losing tenants at an alarming rate. He cited the fact that office vacancies in the U.S. hit a five-year high of nearly 17 percent in the third quarter of this year, and shopping center vacancies have reached their highest rates since 1992. “I think it’s going to take quite a while to work itself out,” Ross said. “Our methodology is to make a great big list,” he said. “What’s everything we can think of that’s either wrong with the industry or that we just plain don’t like about it? Then we start work on another list. If we had control of this industry, what would we do to fix each one of those problems? Once we feel that there is a reasonable likelihood that the second chart kind of equals the first chart, that’s when we get ready to do something.” If you’re thinking about taking advantage of current market conditions in Louisville commercial real estate, call 502.744.9504 or visit the website of Louisville Properties today.