That was when Real Estate Roundtable tabulated its findings from its first survey of the 100 or so senior executives for the previous quarter--but did not publicly release the results. These findings, however, it is making public, and it will continue to do so going forward.

"Washington has been focused on this issue for many months," Roundtable president and CEO Jeffrey DeBoer, noted to conference call listeners. "This survey should serve as a continuing notice to lawmakers to keep working on the solutions."

Despite the relatively positive fundamentals in income-producing real estate, executives do not believe there will be an improvement in the credit markets, he said, summarizing the main sentiment of the index.

For instance 84% of respondents said credit availability is "much worse" compared to one year ago. Equity financing conditions are worse as well, with 51% characterizing it as "somewhat worse" than one year ago and 23% regarding it as "much worse." Expectations for the coming year have dropped since April '08 by 10% for general real estate and by 6% for capital markets.

The survey did capture some--albeit tepid--optimism for improvements in the debt markets however: Nearly two-thirds of executives polled expect debt market conditions to improve over the coming year: 57% projected "somewhat better" debt market conditions; 24% expect conditions will remain "about the same," and 1% expect them to be "much better."

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Erika Morphy

Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.