Boston Properties lower on forecast

Shares of Boston Properties Inc., the biggest US office real estate investment trust, fell after the company forecast fourth-quarter earnings will be below analysts’ estimates. The firm projected funds from operations of $4 to $4.20 a share for 2010 and $1.04 to $1.06 for the fourth quarter. Analysts estimated $1.08 for the quarter. US office vacancies hit a five-year high in the third quarter, according to property research firm Reis Inc. Credit is scarce and the broader economy “remains problematic,’’ Boston Properties chairman Mortimer Zuckerman said. “We’re in for a couple of years of very slow economic times and nobody quite knows what’s going to happen,’’ he said.