The past five years have been particularly challenging from a real estate perspective. "It's almost as if we've navigated an entire real estate cycle in just a few years," said Marcus & Millichap SVP of research services, John Chang, in a research video summarizing the performance of five CRE sectors over that period.

The office sector has had a particularly tough five years, he said. Average vacancy has surged 490 basis points from 2019 to 17.2%, reflecting increased remote work and reducing office-based demand.

"This has really affected large, older, urban office buildings in major metros, far more than smaller, newer suburban office properties in secondary and tertiary markets," said Chang.