Is strip mall or retail shopping center a good investment?

If you are interested in retail commercial properties ( shopping centers, malls, ..... ) and think they are cheap now, you may want to think twice. In short, the macro trend does not support the future of the retail commercial properties.

This article below from The New York Times tells well.

How About Gardening or Golfing at the Mall?

Some highlights: 

* While malls have faced problems in the past, the Internet is now pulling even more sales away from them.

* Near-record vacancy rates at malls of all kinds, both the big enclosed ones and the sprawling strips.

* Most cities, looking at shrinking budgets, cannot afford to subsidize or knock down ailing malls.

* Schools, medical clinics, call centers, government offices and even churches are now standard tenants in malls.

* The vacancy rate at shopping centers and strip malls was 11 percent in the last quarter of 2011, the highest level since 1991, according to the research firm Reis.