New York and Miami continue to lead the office sector’s recovery, with office visits in the cities reaching 86.2% and 82.6% of their pre-pandemic levels respectively. Nationwide, office building visits remain 34% below October 2019 levels, which represents the highest they’ve been since February 2020, according to a placer.ai office sector analysis.

Washington, D.C., Boston and Atlanta had the biggest year-over-year office foot traffic increases last month. Visits to office buildings in Washington D.C. increased 16.4% year over year, likely boosted by an RTO push to increase meaningful in-person work at federal agencies, although many government employees continue to telework. In Boston, where office building occupancy is outperforming national levels, visits saw a 15.6% year-over-year uptick, and Atlanta, where major employers from UPS to NCR Voyix are requiring workers to be in the office five days a week, saw visits grow 13.8% YoY.

Amazon, Dell, Goldman Sachs, Walmart and UPS all have been cracking down on remote work in recent months. Some have been requiring their teams to be onsite full time. Nationwide, office foot traffic increased 10.1% year over year in October, which suggests that while RTO is helping the office sector recover, it is still a work in progress.

Regional office visit data shows that October 2024 was the single busiest in-office month since the pandemic in several major hubs, including Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Washington, D.C., Chicago and San Francisco. It was the second busiest month since the pandemic in Boston, Los Angeles, Miami and New York. Houston, which had lagged behind other major business hubs during the summer in the wake of major storms, reclaimed its position just under the nationwide baseline, said placer.ai.

The Placer.ai Nationwide Office Building Index analyzes foot traffic data from over 700 office buildings nationwide, including commercial office buildings and commercial office buildings with retail offerings on the first floor. It does not include mixed-use buildings that are both residential and commercial.