Monthly Commercial Real Estate Property Closed Sales Results – January 2012

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CoStar’s monthly National Composite Index of Commercial Real Estate posted gains in eight of the last nine months for January 2012.  True, it’s March 15, 2012, but it takes them around 45 days to get the numbers out to us.  With the gain in January the national composite index is now 1.9% above January last year.

Transaction prices are still low with the composite index 31.9% below the previous peak in August 2007.  Buyers and sellers are still far apart, but the spread between asking to selling price has contracted by 1% as pricing has formed.   Plus, this is overall so it doesn’t much reflect the strength of the triple net or absolute net leased, single tenant, corporate leased, investment grade retail.

The average time on market is still very high at 420 days, which is a record high for the month and up from 250 days in January 2007.   However, the number of properties withdrawn from the market by sellers unable or unwilling to make a deal is leveling off. In January, the number of properties withdrawn from the market fell 12.7% from the same period last year, another indication of a strengthening market and improved liquidity.

While the CCRSI National Investment Grade Index dipped 1.7% in January from the previous month, it is up 3.7% from a year ago and 18% above the trough in late-2009, strengthened by investor interest in coastal markets and core corporate leased assets.

The National General Commercial Grade Index rose 2% in January from December, the ninth straight month of recovery in pricing of smaller, non-investment-grade properties. The general grade index is now a modest 1.6% above the year-earlier mark and 5.6% higher than the 2009 market low.

I’ll send you over to Randyl Drummer for more detail

CoStar News – Article – CRE Pricing Indices Continue Upward Trend In January