On many fronts, early 2010 looks to be an opportune time to return to the commercial real estate market. Price declines are leveling off, and transaction volume has improved slightly.

In the multifamily sector, sales volume was slim during first quarter 2009, but it ticked upward in the second quarter to $2.8 billion, an increase of 42.5 percent from the previous quarter, according to data from Real Capital Analytics.

Now, it seems, momentum in the sector is building. Ninety percent of the owners, investors and developers recently surveyed by Jones Lang LaSalle say they plan to increase their multifamily investments in 2010. This is an increase of 22 percent from the previous year, when 68 percent of respondents said they intended to increase their multifamily investments in 2009. In addition, more than half of those surveyed who plan to increase their multifamily inve