According to the Scott Glenn team at Radius, the most telling statistic from the first quarter of 2009 was the lack of completed sale transactions.

“The dramatic decline of both the stock market and credit markets beginning in September of 2008 were contributing factors as very few properties went into escrow in the fourth quarter of 2008 and subsequently only one Santa Barbara Commercial — retail, office, industrial — property closed escrow in the first quarter of 2009,” the team wrote in its first quarter report.

With similar gloomy numbers, the Hayes Commercial first quarter report showed only eight closed sales of commercial property on the South Coast, and volume was down 76 percent on an annualized basis.

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