ECONOMY

Price Waterhouse Sees Credit Crunch Easing: The nation’s credit crunch is expected to ease somewhat this year as pension funds and wealthy investors supplant U.S. banks, thrifts and insurance companies as major commercial real estate financiers, says the Price Waterhouse Real Estate Group in Los Angeles. A new study by the firm found a “44% increase in planned equity investment over 1991 levels.” The firm, which surveyed 450 of the nation’s largest real estate lenders and equity investors, also found that investment from non-traditional sources such as foreign banks, wealthy investors and pension funds “appears likely to continue through at least the mid-1990s.”