E&Y Panel: Follow Today's Playbook

NEW YORK CITY-The most successful players in the current market will be the ones who go by the playbook that reflects present-day realities, including the heavy involvement of the federal government and a return to interest rates of 8% to 9%. That was the consensus of panelists in the aptly titled “Embracing Change” seminar presented Thursday by Ernst & Young’s real estate practice group.

While specific provisions of TALF and PPIP may raise some concerns, “This is the playing field,” advised Mark Grinis, global real estate partner at E&Y. “Those who figure out how to navigate it will be the most active.”

The panel’s sole participant from outside E&Y, Ginnie Mae president Joseph Murin, also sounded the theme of positive action. He downplayed concerns about a predicted rise in residential mortgage defaults as too generalized because they paint low-default markets with the same brush as those where the incidence is higher.