Washington D.C., Best Place for Commercial Real Estate Investment in 2009

Grubb & Ellis Company, a commercial real estate advisory firm, released its annual investment forecast report. Good news for us:

In this difficult market, Washington, D.C. should be at the top of office investors’ buy list, according to Grubb & Ellis’ Investment Opportunity Monitor, a proprietary market ranking in which Grubb & Ellis annually measures 60 office, 53 retail, 56 apartment and 55 industrial markets against 13 to 17 criteria important to the performance of real estate investments. Washington, D.C., is the one market that will benefit from the credit crisis as the government expands to implement its economic recovery plan.

Following Washington, D.C., on the top 10 list are Portland, Ore.; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Austin, Texas; Dallas-Fort Worth; Houston; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Boston; and Oakland, Calif. The Texas markets offer strong population growth, while the others offer strong population growth as well as natural barriers to entry.