This thesis explores what economic factors had the greatest affects on the early 1990s commercial real estate recession and the current commercial real estate recession. Equity Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are used as the measure of the commercial real estate market. The Hypothesis states that because of the fundamental differences between the two recessions, the influential factors will also be different. Through the use of an ordinary least squares regression, the hypothesis is tested using a series of asset pricing explanatory variables. The findings suggest that the hypothesis was correct and the two recessions are influenced by different explanatory variables.