By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff Monday, January 4th, 2010

If you’re in real estate, you probably don’t want to reflect too much on 2009. That’s understandable.

Rising vacancies and declining sales volumes, paired with foreclosures and disappearing financing, dealt a devastating blow to the real estate sector over the past year — one that might knock the industry off its feet until late 2010.

The Business Times checked in with real estate forecaster Kirk Lesh from California Lutheran University in Ventura County to see if the toxicity of 2009 will continue to poison the market over the next year. His conservative answer: 2010 will be bad, but better than 2009.

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