Industrial assets traded at a nearly 31% premium over 2020 prices in the second quarter, clocking in at a national average of $113 per square foot. That's an increase of 13.3% over Q1 figures—and underscores what experts have been crowing about since even before the COVID-19 pandemic: industrial is the hottest sector to watch in CRE right now. 

A new report from CommercialEdge shows that an estimated $23.3 billion of sales have closed so far this year, putting 2021 on pace to surpass last year's record $45.0 billion in deals. That increase will likely be driven by an increase in the average sales prices, not an increase in the total number of sales. 

"The growth of sales prices has not solely been a response to the increase in demand for industrial assets, although the pandemic did accelerate the trend," the report states. "Rather, the run-up began in the second half of the last decade. In the first quarter of 2016, the average price of an industrial building was $62 per foot. Prices increased nearly 40% by the first quarter of 2020 to $86 per foot."