NEW YORK CITY—US commercial property sales declined 7% year over year in dollar volume to $463.9 billion in 2017, says Real Capital Analytics. However, in contrast to a decade ago, the decline in volume was accompanied by an almost equal Y-O-Y rise in pricing, to 7.1%. As the year ended, values across commercial real estate were up 23% from their pre-crisis peak a decade ago.

“This slide in sale activity is not a downward spiral where buyers sit on their hands in anticipation of lower prices,” according to RCA's latest US Capital Trends report. “Rather, both buyers and existing owners are reassessing their price expectations and a growing chasm between their expectations makes deals more difficult.”

Although these reassessments have resulted in volume declines, “the scale of decline is modest in some respects,” according to RCA. Since its 2015 peak, deal volume has dropped only 15% on a cumulative basis. And it's still ahead of the levels seen in 2014.