Chicago's Downturn Prospects

Chicago expected to fare well in a downturn
Chicago might not be a 24-hour city, but its strengths will help it withstand the punches that commercial real estate markets nationwide are expected to suffer in the coming year, according to a recent report from the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Suffer?

Real estate developers and investors expect property values across the country to be restated, and risk to continue to be repriced, with those who have relied most heavily on debt to sustain the harshest economic blows.

That sounds particularly nasty.

Although 78 percent of respondents interviewed for the report expect even tighter underwriting criteria for financing in 2008, they also predict that real estate will outperform U.S. stock and bond returns next year.

I think I need to look up the definition of suffer and find something worse to describe next year's U.S. stock and bond markets then, assuming we can trust this report.