Real estate brokers "on food stamps?"

Builders, brokers and financiers testified on the slowdown in commercial real estate market at the RealShare conference in Center City this morning.
  "I like this market. We're back to fundamentals," Bill Glazer, president of Keystone Property Group. "Less than one year ago, everyone in the market was complaining bitterly that there was nothing to buy. The complaint today is that there's no money to buy with" as speculative financing dries up.
   Moderator Ken Balin, ceo of AMC Delancey Group Inc., asked the early morning panel, "Are the brokers in our region going on food stamps?"
  Earnings are down by half at publicly-traded commercial property brokers, noted Ward Fitzpatrick, senior managing principal at Exeter Property Group.
  Citing his late mentor, Liberty Property Trust founder Willard Rouse, he advised brokers to "do the deals that are nearest the cash register. Book those fees" before the customers get cold feet.
  Nationally, "supply and demand is out of balance," Fitzgerald added. "A lot of vacant buildings have been put up on the backs of pension funds." 
  But if building has slowed, Fitzgerald isn't predicting a property price collapse, either. Thanks to the Federal Reserve, interest rates are down, which takes pressure off indebted building owners, he said.
  Looking for bargains? Try the depressed Jersey Shore vacation home market, suggested Temple economist William Dunkelberg.
  The local market's "confused," with vacancies low but sales way down, said David Fahey, president of Binswanger's commercial division.
  "We have been hurt by economic conditions," but not as badly as other cities that overbuilt, said Robert Walters, senior managing director at CB Richard Ellis.