Institutional investors are continuing to pour capital into gateway cities and big urban metros across the country, despite an ongoing narrative around the so-called "urban exodus." 

A new report from Reonomy shows that in some cases, investment in the top 20 US markets increased year-over-year, despite the pandemic and more liberal WFH policies pushing some workers to the suburbs. Last year, institutional investors allocated proportionally more of their investment dollars to office assets in big cities: while they bought 4% less than the previous year, they paid 12% more on average per square foot. This suggests institutional investors "do not view remote work as a long-term threat to office values," according to Reonomy's report.

Reonomy surveyed 35 major money managers with portfolio allocations valued at more than $425 billion to garner the data, and found that "in general, big money investment allocations did not deviate significantly from their pre-pandemic investment allocations."