Buyer appetite for commercial property remains strong as indicated by continued low cap rates, rising transactions, and prices at three-and-a-half-year highs. Multifamily construction took a break from its recent momentum; single-family construction continued upward even as new home sales dropped dramatically. Existing housing prices are taking off, at least for now. But weak economic indicators continue to raise fears that any emerging strength can be easily knocked off course.

Unique conditions in mainland China could moderate the effects of a market correction, say Ken Rhee, CEO of Huhan Business Advisory in Shanghai and ULI’s chief representative for mainland China, and Chen Jie, executive director of the Center for Housing Policy Studies and associate professor at the Fudan University School of Management in Shanghai.

According to Emerging Trends, the real estate report from PWC and ULI presented at a ULI 2011 Fall Meeting press conference in L.A. last week, a handful of urban centers are climbing out of recession and may serve as models for the rest of the country. Washington, D.C., remained the number-one city for the third consecutive year; read more to see how the other cities fared in this year’s survey.

In the 33rd edition of Emerging Trends, one of the most highly regarded industry outlook reports published, the opinions of 950 investors, developers, lenders, consultants, and property company representatives point to a rather glum outlook for 2012: the climb out of the real estate depression will be a long and slow one for all but one market sector. Read more to learn why and to learn how cities have improved over a year ago.

Five real estate experts discuss issues surrounding the office market downturn, including how it differs from previous ones, the prospects for recovery and indicators to be on the watch for, where the office market is expected to recover first, whether the current downturn will change the way tenants lease properties even after the office market recovers, and what office building owners should focus on to make it through the rest of the recession.