Statistics are supposedly black and white, but not when it comes to the real estate market. It has always been hard determining the turning points in the real estate market. Now, it has become especially hard since two influential research firms are presenting very different views of the real estate market.

Newport Beach, California firm Green Street Advisors, which closely tracks investment trusts in the real estate, advices that commercial real estate prices have already hit bottom mid of last year and that prices have slowly risen ever since. Moody’s Investors Service contends this view though; it has cautioned investors, explaining it is still early to call a bottom. Both firms are standing their ground, insisting that their own approach is more accurate than the other.

Investors naturally are perplexed, not knowing whether or not it is indeed a good time to start buying office, retail, and apartment buildings once again. The sale of John Hancock Tower to Boston Properties Inc. for approximately $900 million proves that investment sales are again picking up this year. Still, evaluating the market remains tricky.

Both firms have internally developed their own price indexes and they use their own index to make their forecasts. Green Street Advisors Commercial Property Price Index reflected a 30% increase in September as compared to 2009. Moody’s/Real Commercial Property Price Index also proved that prices have stabilized but not fully recovered by showing a 0.9% increase for the same month.

Though economists agree that both Green Street Advisors and Moody’s Investors Service are good in looking at particular segments of the market, they also agree that neither has been accurate in presenting an overall view. Both firms vary in their approach of evaluating the market and this may well explain the discrepancy in their views. While Moody’s CPI gives equal weight to small deals that sell during distressed prices, Green Street’s price index look at bigger deals that factor in major markets.

Green Street director of research Mike Kirby admits his firm’s index is not scientifically precise. He explains, “Yes, it’s subjective. We believe it is better to be roughly right rather than precisely wrong. Commercial real-estate prices have clearly and unambiguously gone up in the last year. The fact that some indexes [don't reflect this] doesn’t change the truth.”

Commercial real estate values have finally reached a plateau, no contest about that. But whether it’s because they have finally reached bottom or not is something yet to be determined.