Meanwhile, the value of distressed properties has more than doubled so far his year, according to RCA's report. A total of $93 billion of US office, industrial, retail and apartment properties have fallen into default, foreclosure or bankruptcy during this cycle, and troubled hotels and other commercial property types add "at least another $31 billion" to the total, the report states.

And although distress is accumulating quickly, its resolution is another matter. "Less than 10% of the distressed situations that have emerged have been resolved," the report states. Lenders have been slow to foreclose on assets and the phrase 'pretend & extend' has recently entered the vernacular."

Just as slow, apparently, is the mushrooming of interest in distressed assets. An Ernst & Young survey of investors in distressed debt, released Tuesday, finds that most are waiting for an increase in loan defaults before acting. "It's clear from what we're being told by buyers and sellers and what we see in the market that we're in the dog days of distressed debt right now," says Mark Grinis, leader of E&Y's real estate distress services group, in a release.

Unlike the 1990s, when the formation of the Resolution Trust Corp. led to market-clearing price levels, "there are very few deals happening today other than one-off distressed sales," Grinis adds. "The government's PPIP initiative has largely fallen on deaf ears, sellers are weighing their options, and a broad spectrum of buyers are simply waiting for the dam to burst and unleash a highly anticipated wave of deals."

RCA's analysis includes only office, industrial, apartment and retail properties of significant size. Hotels, land, other property types and smaller properties "would add billions more to the total," according to RCA.