Realty Firms Find Climate Tougher

A new Laventhol & Horwath survey of the U.S. real estate industry reveals that 85.8% of U.S. real estate firms believe it is more difficult to do business today than it was two years ago, and 53.1% think the situation will get even worse.

Real estate firms were asked to identify factors that represent limitations or constraints on their future growth and profitability.

Heading the list of concerns were overbuilt markets (75.6%), state and government regulations (63.8%), environmental controls (60.1%), community opposition to construction development (53.4%) and impact fees (45.1%). Federal government regulations, including tax reform, were judged to be a relatively minor issue.