Austin along with Las Vegas, Riverside, Phoenix and Kansas City offer the greatest potential value in the office sector. The report said the national office market will continue to be weak through 2003, but in 2004 the percentage of the market in recovery and expansion will grow significantly.

In multifamily, Austin has suffered from a building boom as the economy slowed, pushing occupancy rates lower and increasing concessions to tenants. The PricewaterhouseCoopers study said that Austin and several other markets will hit bottom in 2002 and gradually recover through 2006.

The study sees the brightest outlook for Austin's hotel sector. It is one of the cities cited as offering the greatest value for hotel investments with Las Vegas, Nassau-Suffolk and Raleigh- Durham. "Increases in occupancy rates for these cities are expected to range between 7.63% and 16.31% from 2001 to 2006. Austin should lead the pack," the report stated.