SAN FRANCISCO—With the prospect of an interest rate hike later this month now looking increasingly likely, the question of what impact any Federal Reserve action on rates will have on commercial real estate becomes especially timely. Marcus & Millichap's Hessam Nadji told interviewers on CNBC's Worldwide Exchange that even with a rate increase, the sector's margins remain healthy, especially in view of what the GlobeSt.com Thought Leader termed a "favorable" balance between supply and demand.

"The underlying theme of what's happening with US real estate, whether it's residential or commercial, is that demand continues to outpace supply," said Nadji, senior EVP at MMI. While construction levels are rising in keeping with "a very healthy market, on both the commercial side and the residential side," they continue to fall well short of "the job-driven demand that's coming back into the marketplace."

On housing in particular, Nadji said, the current level of single-family completions is "very interesting to look at," because it stands at between 600,000 and 700,000 units, compared to a peak of 1.6 million prior to the last recession. "So we're still well below prior peaks, and household formation has picked up, pushing about 1.5 million units."  

Assuming the Fed does raise the federal funds rate at its monthly meeting—the first rate hike since June 2006—Nadji doesn't see the nation's central bank acting brashly. "The Fed is incredibly data-sensitive as we saw earlier in the year, when there was some turbulence in the market and they basically paused," he told the CNBC interviewers. He predicted that the Fed would continue to be "accommodative" in the months to come, rather than "too aggressive with interest rates."

Nadji also offered insights into the current yield environment and what's happening with the volume of investment sales. For the full video, click here. For all coverage of Marcus & Millichap on GlobeSt.com, including columns and insights from Hessam Nadji, click here.