US Investment Hits Post-Crisis Record

CHICAGO—National commercial investment has moved steadily upward over the past four years, and in the third quarter volumes reached $66 billion, bringing the rolling annual volume to $270 billion, a post-crisis record, according to a new study by DTZ and based on data from Real Capital Analytics. The recent tendency among investors to focus more attention on secondary or tertiary markets also seems to have continued, since growth in eight top metro areas studied by DTZ was somewhat lower. Researchers from the firm expect that demand will remain strong but advise investors to consider moving away from the core areas to get higher returns.

The $66 billion represented an 8% increase over the second quarter. “Activity across the eight main US markets we monitor totalled $93 billion over the last twelve months,” company researchers note. “Growth of 17% on a year ago is below the national average as investors start to shift towards non-core markets.” Still, Manhattan continued to lead the way, attracting $25 billion in the past twelve months. And sales in San Francisco reached $18 billion in the same period, a 69% increase on a year ago.