Proshares UltraShort Real Estate (SRS)

[snowcloud]

Mort Zuckerman, CEO of BXP was on Bloomberg just now. Here are a few of the points he made:

- 2009 will be very, very tough for the economy in general including REITs and will continue to be tough for the next several years. Rents will not rise during this period. Economy is still in a downdraft.

- current tenants are very hesitant to re-sign leases right now because of climate of economic uncertainty

- BXP won't build out any new projects until they're at least 50% pre-leased. One of their current projects is 100% pre-leased.

- cap rates are on the rise and will continue to rise as high as 6.5% - 7%. (I'm not familiar with cap rates as a real estate term so am only repeating what he said here)

- financing is unavailable for many if not most projects. Financing that used to take one quick phone call now takes many to get it done, even for relatively small projects for BXP.

- he advised investors to sit on the sidelines with their cash for now.