If Charles Dickens were alive today, he might have this to say about the institutional real estate market: “It was the best of times; it was — potentially — the worst of times.”

The good news is that interest in real estate is growing, with every new real estate commitment representing yet another brick in the great wall of money that is accumulating. And why not? After all, performance metrics have demonstrated that institutional real estate is presenting a strong case for itself relative to other asset classes.

The bad news is that too much money is chasing too few good deals and that is pumping up prices and bringing back memories of real estate bubbles past and the dreadful times that ensued. We have seen this movie before. Too much liquidity creating too much competition among investors and pushing commercial real estate prices to unsustainable levels.

That has some industry professionals and observers asking a couple of key questions. How close to