Local economist John Mitchell gave an economic forecast for 2010 at a Portland Business Alliance forum this morning. Mitchell said that the recession is likely either over or nearly over, and projected a fairly slow recovery. Though residential real estate has already seen gains, he expects commercial real estate to take much longer to recover. Mitchell is a principal at M & H Economic Consultants, and was previously a chief economist at US Bancorp.

The Daily Journal of Commerce and Portland Tribune both covered the event, and Oregon Business Editor Robin Doussard has a good blog post about it.

The PBA holds breakfast forums once a month. January’s forum is on the future of Portland’s newspapers.