Oklahoma City can't make the grade with national realty movers and shakers

Also ran, also ran ...

Once again, the national powers-that-be in commercial real estate barely noticed Oklahoma City in the annual Emerging Trends in Real Estate, the much-anticipated and much-read annual outlook by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute.

Among “Markets to Watch,” we got a yellow circle, for “Fair,” not a green one for “Generally Good” — and, of course, no red circle for “Generally Poor.”

But it was close.

Look deeper though, and we weren't that far from “Generally Poor,” which boggles the mind. In a list of metro areas of fewer than 2 million people, Oklahoma City ranked No. 9 of 18 — but just two steps from red, separated from poor Jacksonville, Fla., by only fair New Orleans.

More sordid details:

The annual survey of movers and shakers in commercial real estate development, brokerage and finance ranked Oklahoma City No. 37 of 51 markets (fair yellow, but just two steps from poor red) as far as investment prospects; No. 32 (into poor red by nine steps) as far as development prospects; and — get this — No. 27 (deep into poor red territory, by 10 steps) as far as for-sale homebuilding prospects.