ATLANTA—The three major trends impacting the Southeast retail market today are cap rate compression, lowering vacancy rates and increasing rental rates, which are leading to positive effects for investors and owners of retail real estate, says JLL's John Bemis attending ICSC's Southeast conference this week in Atlanta. Bemis dives into each of the four major southeast markets of Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville and Mobile and looks at their net absorption rates and economies in this short video.

In the last year, Atlanta's retail vacancy rate has dropped down to 8.9% from 9.4%, and rental rates have continued to decrease, leading to cap rate compression and increased assets values throughout the market. The retail corridors throughout Buckhead, Midtown, Perimeter and the West Side Provisions area are all improving; however, the balance of the Atlanta retail market is still struggling a bit, but the market has bottomed out in the areas south of I-20 and is finally seeing improvement there as well.

The retail market in Nashville is benefitting from employment gains in the healthcare and government sectors, and robust tourism. Retail net absorption has dropped to 6.8% this year, and even while that rate is improving dramatically rental rates have increased due to a constricted supply pipeline.