Metro areas across the Midwest, Southwest, and Southeast are leading a recent uptick in retail asking rents, with national figures hovering 2.7% above where they were a year ago and strip centers standing out as the highest year-over-year increase at 3.4%. 

New research from the National Association of Realtors shows that cities like Akron, Las Vegas, Tulsa, Salt Lake City, Ft. Lauderdale, Atlanta, Nashville, Tampa, and Cincinnati showed the strongest year-over-year rent gains. Meanwhile, San Francisco, New Haven, and St. Louis all showed negative changes in asking rents compared to 2020 levels. 

Net absorption of retail space last quarter totaled 30.2 million square feet (msf) and hit the highest level since Q4 2017. Nearly all of the gains in net absorption were driven by strong demand for general retail and neighborhood space, according to NAR.