Rents for new customers at U.S. self-storage facilities declined in the first quarter of 2023 to $15.45 a square foot, a 10% drop from the first quarter of 2022. That drop, following a comparable reduction in the fourth quarter of 2022, marked the biggest decline on record since tracking the rates in 2013.
A report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed that, on average, the headquarters of federal agencies are about 20% occupied each week. Weekly attendance in the bottom quarter of surveyed offices is a measly 9%, and not one reported attendance above 50%. Compare that with corporate offices in New York, where average in-office attendance surpassed 50% last month.
The occupancy rate for senior-housing facilities was 83.7% in the second quarter of 2023. That is up from the pandemic bottom but still below the 87.1% rate in the first quarter of 2020. Since the supply of new senior housing buildings is relatively low, analysts point to a lack of demand. One possibility: Remote and hybrid work schedules are keeping many older Americans from moving into senior-living communities.
After more than two years of booming sales and price increases, the U.S. housing market sank this year under the weight of high mortgage rates. In April, home prices declined year over year for the first time in 11 years.
As many as 188,000 low-cost rental apartments funded by the government tax credit are eligible to convert their properties to market rate by 2027.
Despite the rise in mortgage rates last year, sales of student housing property reached a record high of $22.9 billion in 2022.
Prologis has agreed to pay Blackstone $3.1 billion for a portfolio of U.S. warehouses and distribution properties. The portfolio includes nearly 14 million square feet in about 70 properties in major markets. The all-cash deal, which is one of the largest commercial real-estate transactions of 2023, is expected to close by the end of June.
Office buildings are only about 50% as full, with public-transportation ridership at less than 70%, as before Covid-19 across 10 major metro areas.