According to the September results for the S&P/GRA Commercial Real Estate Indices, commercial real estate prices were down 0.6 percent nationally compared with September 2007, just the second annual decline measured in the 15 years of data in the index. The September results are the final numbers for the indices, which was discontinued on Dec. 23.
In the property sectors, three sectors reported negative returns over the September/August period, while one sector reported a positive return. Retail was –0.7 percent from September/August and -0.4 percent year over year. Apartments were the best performing sector and Office was the worst performing, returning +1.6 percent and -1.3 percent for the month, respectively. Apartments were the only property sector that reported positive returns on a year-over-year basis, returning +1.7 percent. Warehouse, down 3.3 percent, was the worst performing sector over the one year period.