Pru: Economic Gains Could Boost RE

Economic recovery should strengthen this year and might lead to improvements in the real estate sector in the second half, according to Prudential Real Estate Investors, Parsippany, N.J.PREI said it expects corporate confidence to improve in 2003, spurring economic gains and stabilizing property fundamentals. In its annual outlook report on the debt and property markets and real estate investment trusts, PREI said weakening market fundamentals last year "did little to slow the pace" of issuance of commercial mortgage-backed securities. "While total 2002 [CMBS] issuance fell $2 billion short of the $97 billion in 2001, the brisk pace of loan originations in the final months of 2002 suggests that new issuance could remain strong in the first half of this year," PREI said. The company can be found online at http://www.prudential.com/prei.