Not that it's simply a matter of identifying the opportunities and taking them. "Anybody who doesn't think fund-raising has gotten more challenging is in for a real surprise," said Marc Davidson, managing director of AEW Capital Management.

One aspect of potential deal-making that's incomplete at the moment is levels of financing: Jacobsson said the senior piece of the capital stack is "not there" and someone needs to start making these loans again. It isn't likely to happen right away, though. "Banks we all know and love are in a capital crisis themselves," he said, adding that several overseas banks aren't capital-constrained but they don't know the territory here. In particular, Jacobsson said, some of the leading Japanese banks are well capitalized, "but I don't see them jumping into the US market right now."

Among domestic banks, Fox said he sees a push to clean up balance sheets by year's end. Davidson said the industry needs to find the housing floor before conditions begin to stabilize. "We created these conditions over a long period of time," he said. "We're not going to cure them in a short period of time."

Prior to the afternoon's power panel, Jeff DeBoer, president and CEO of the Real Estate Roundtable, offered attendees a preview of what results to expect from the upcoming national elections. The Democrats are expected to pick up seats in the both the House and Senate, he said, while the outcome of the presidential race is far less certain. Regardless of whether John McCain or Barack Obama wins the election, "this industry will be in the cross-hairs" of lawmakers during the next Congressional session.