Real Estate

Economists predict the real estate market will begin to rebound sometime in 2010 as the economy turns. However, real estate experts say the next round will look markedly different from the last one, with the industry adopting practices aimed at creating a sustainable marketplace.

Unlike the last housing cycle when developers aimed higher and higher, ultimately pricing out middle-income workers, home products in a sustainable market would target a mix of incomes, suggests Henry Cisneros, the former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and chairman of CityView, a national real estate investment and pension fund manager based in Los Angeles.

Cisneros notes that the majority of housing would be priced to attract the largest group of consumers, those earning about 150% of area median income.

Project success would be measured by the “triple bottom line,” its impact on society and the environment, as well as profitability.