Office and commercial properties posted a nearly 20 percent price increase in 2010, the MIT Center for Real Estate recently reported.

It’s one of a growing number of signs the recovery in the commercial real estate market is starting to pick up crucial momentum.

A top Fed official also recently gave the commercial sector a clean bill of health, noting that the biggest banks no longer face major threats from office tower loans gone bad.

Meanwhile, Jones Lang LaSalle is predicting a 40 percent jump in office tower and commercial property sales in 2011, to $135 billion.

All rather remarkable given the gloom that pervaded just a year ago. Remember all those dire predictions of a coming tidal wave of office tower foreclosures?

We did get a few big foreclosures, like the Hancock, but lenders managed to work out less sensational deals with other tower owners behind closed doors.

Now contrast all this to the messed up residential market, with home prices slumping fast towards a double dip.

With the residential sector on a prolonged bender, I guess it’s up to the office market now to generate the good news and keep Wall Street happy.

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