Forest City, CBRE Feeling Effects of Wobbly Economy

In the worsening economic downturn, some real estate investment trusts and brokerages are showing signs of weakness.

On Jan. 2, stocks of Forest City Ratner parent Forest City Enterprises traded at $43.62 a share. On Aug. 4, they traded for nearly half the price, at $25.60. Leading office landlord SL Green, which started the year at $92.56 a share, was trading at $79.67 by Aug. 4. Meanwhile, CB Richard Ellis saw its stock fall from $21.38 on Jan. 2 to $13.45 on Aug. 4.

During its second-quarter earnings call on June 30, CBRE’s president and CEO, Brett White, said that “volume decline in both the capital markets and leasing businesses are approaching the worst decline seen since the early 1990s, and 2001 through 2003. We see no near-term recovery in either. All of this combined to provide us a much more negative outlook on the business today than we saw earlier this year.”