US Commercial real estate prices as measured by Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices (CPPI) fell 1.7% in March, leaving the index at 20.8% below its level a year ago and 22.8% below the peak in prices measured in October 2007.
Commercial real estate sales volumes were down 75-80% in March, by both count and dollar volume, compared to their levels a year earlier.
Moody’s expects continued weakness and possibly further declines in volume in the coming months.
Moody’s quarterly indices by property type show national office prices have now fallen 30% from peak levels, after a nearly 20% decline in the first quarter. National retail properties saw values fall 13% in the first quarter, while apartment and industrial prices remained relatively flat.
Among the top-ten metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), retail was the underperformer, with prices falling 14% in the first quarter of 2009.
Western apartment prices saw a slight gain in the first quarter of 2.7%. Office was the hardest hit property type in the West with values falling over 16% in the first quarter, the single largest drop to date for this sector.
Moody’s notes that so far this downturn, the top-ten markets have not seen prices fall as much as the nation has overall. Office prices in the top-ten, for example are down 14.3% from their peak, compared to the 30% decline nationally.
