The mere flipping of the calendar to mark a new year has done nothing to inject certainty into the next 12 months. The higher cost of credit that muted commercial real estate investment sales in the second half of 2022 and the attitude of some sellers who refuse to recognize the new pricing reality remain in place in the new year. Many eyes are on the Federal Reserve, hoping for a respite in interest rate hikes after the central bank raised the effective benchmark federal funds rate some 400 basis points to 4.33 percent in less than a year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Some investors are even hoping for a rate cut. Neither of those is likely, at least in the short term, observes Arthur Milston, a senior managing director of NAI Global in New York City. While inflation has cooled to an annual rate of 6.5 percent from a high of 9.1 percent in June, that’s still far off from the roughly 2 percent annual target that the Fed desires, he adds. That should translate into continued tightening, Milston says, although the question is, how long will the central bank keep raising rates, and …
